WASHINGTON — Russia’s ambassador to the US, Alexander Darchiev, has died “suddenly,” the Russian Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday. He was 66.

No cause of death was given by the Russian Foreign Ministry, which described Darchiev in a statement as “an outstanding diplomat, an experienced leader, a kind colleague and a mentor.”

“An exceptional professional and a distinguished expert on the United States, Alexander Darchiev served in one of the most demanding areas of Russian foreign policy,” added the ministry.

Darchiev had served as the Kremlin’s envoy to Washington since March of 2025, a period of ongoing icy relations between the two superpowers caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The late ambassador previously helmed the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North America Department and served as ambassador to Canada between 2014 and 2021.

Born to a Soviet diplomatic family in Hungary, Darchiev had a reputation for bombastic verbal attacks against the West.

“Apparently, Washington will need time to get used to the fact that its hegemony is in the past, and will have to reckon with the national interests of Russia, which has its own sphere of influence and responsibility,” he vented to Interfax in March 2022, weeks after the invasion of Ukraine.

News of Darchiev’s death came amid a new trilateral push in Abu Dhabi to end the bloody war in Ukraine, with American, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats taking part in talks.

Following two days of talks in the Middle East, special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are slated to travel to Moscow to meet with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin

“These were very substantive. They were some pretty tough discussions after, I think, almost eight months of not being together,” Kushner told reporters. “The conversations were very thorough. We covered all the relevant issues.”

Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia was less enthused, calling Wednesday’s talks “one of the toughest ones.”

“I think the Russians came with very, very strict directives,” Arakhamia explained. “And it was very hard to actually soften the discussion.”