After Chancellor Scholz’s visit to Ukraine, many things seem different. Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, obviously takes a more positive view of the chancellor and announces an apology – in an interview in which he does not shy away from praising Germany.
The Ambassador of Ukraine in Germany, Andriy Melnyk, wants to personally apologize to Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his “liver sausage” statement. “That’s a statement that I later regret, of course,” said Melnyk in an interview with “Spiegel”. “I will personally apologize to him,” he added. The statement was “diplomatically inappropriate” and “offended many people, not only in Germany”.
After much hesitation, Scholz visited Ukraine in mid-June. At the beginning of May, however, he had decided not to travel to Kyiv for the time being. Federal President Steinmeier had previously been disinvited by the Ukrainian government shortly before his planned visit to Kyiv. Melnyk then said that the SPD chancellor was playing “an offended liverwurst”.
Melnyk’s statement also caused resentment within the Ukrainian government: “My president was not amused,” Melnyk said of Volodymyr Zelensky’s reaction. Melnyk said he had to explain his statement to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. The Ambassador added that he has not discussed this with the Chancellor yet but hopes to have that opportunity.
Melnyk also declared that he loves Germany and said that he could imagine staying in Germany permanently after his term as ambassador: “I would not have come to Germany, even as a diplomat, if I had not loved the language or the culture enjoyed and also didn’t respect the people,” he said.
Regarding the negative reactions of parts of the German public to his statements since the beginning of the war, Melnyk said: “With everything we have to hear from many Germans today in these days of war: I still love Germany as a country.”
