Zelenskyy dismisses controversial ambassador to Germany – POLITICO

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday recalled his nation’s ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, who brought on controversy after defending a twentieth century Nazi collaborator.

A decree revealed by Zelenskyy’s presidential workplace on Saturday afternoon solely talked about the “dismissal” of Melnyk, with out offering any additional details about the explanations for his removing, the place the ambassador would go subsequent, or who would exchange him.

German media had beforehand reported that Melnyk, who had been serving as ambassador in Berlin for nearly eight years, would return to the overseas ministry in Kyiv and may even take up a senior function as Ukrainian deputy overseas minister, though this has not been confirmed.

Melnyk had been a decisive but additionally controversial prime diplomat in Germany. He brazenly criticized the federal government in Berlin for the gradual tempo of weapon deliveries to Ukraine throughout the first months of the battle and strongly urged Olaf Scholz’s administration to do extra.

In Could, he instantly attacked Chancellor Scholz, saying he was behaving “like an offended liver sausage” — which is German slang to explain somebody who will get offended simply.

Melnyk had sparked an issue in an interview final week through which he defended Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist chief and Nazi collaborator, who was assassinated in 1959. The ambassador stated that “Bandera was not a mass assassin of Jews and Poles,” arguing that there was no proof for such accusations.

Melnyk’s remarks triggered an outcry in Germany, however the backlash was even heavier in Poland — considered one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters within the battle in opposition to Russia — the place the overseas ministry formally complained to Kyiv.

Israel’s embassy to Germany had also condemned Melnyk’s remarks, saying that “the assertion made by the Ukrainian ambassador is a distortion of the historic details, belittles the Holocaust and is an insult to those that have been murdered by Bandera and his individuals.”

The Ukrainian overseas ministry publicly distanced itself from Melnyk’s remarks final week. In a press release, the ministry stated “the opinion that the ambassador … Melnyk expressed in an interview with a German journalist is of his personal and doesn’t mirror the place of the Ministry of International Affairs of Ukraine.”