With his brash style, the Ukrainian Ambassador Melnyk is not only making friends in Germany. Before he leaves Berlin on October 14 after almost eight years in office, the diplomat explains his most recent undiplomatic appearance. He is already giving his successor a few tips.
The Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk will leave Germany on October 14 after almost eight years in office. “I have to be in Kyiv (Kyiv) by October 15 to take up a new post at the foreign ministry, it seems,” Melnyk said. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has already suggested that the 46-year-old become one of several deputy foreign ministers. The government still has to decide on that.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recalled Melnyk from his post in mid-July. Shortly before, the diplomat’s comments on the controversial Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera, whom historians accuse of collaboration with the Nazis and joint responsibility for the murder of Poles and Jews in World War II, caused criticism – not only in Germany, but above all in Poland .
Melnyk is currently still carrying out official business. It has been discussed for a long time that he should become the next deputy foreign minister. His successor in Berlin is to be Oleksiy Makejev, who was political director at the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv for many years. But there is still no official confirmation for this either. Makeyev is expected to arrive in Berlin shortly after Melnyk left Berlin.
Melnyk is controversial because of his harsh criticism of the government’s Ukraine policy. In retrospect, however, he believes that his often undiplomatic conduct of office was correct. “If I had stayed quietly and politely in Berlin during the last very dramatic months, there might not have been this huge discussion about – first missing, then insufficient – German arms deliveries for Ukraine, as was the case in the first months after the beginning of the war was,” he said.
He recommends a dual strategy to his successor. “He would have to be accepted as a diplomat as soon as possible, i.e. be nice and friendly, in order to win new sympathies for Ukraine, especially in view of the war fatigue and this exaggerated debate about a cold winter,” says Melnyk. “On the other hand, I think he can’t help but be uncomfortable and edgy and keep challenging the sluggish German political elite.” It will be “a Herculean task for him to find his way through Berlin’s political jungle without any grace period.”
