The Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk will not be in office much longer – but he is now engaged in a verbal skirmish with the Saxon CDU man Jens Lehmann. He had complained about Melnyk’s undiplomatic choice of words. And now he’s the target himself.
The diplomat reacted indignantly to the demand of the Leipzig CDU member of the Bundestag Jens Lehmann for the expulsion of the Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk and demanded a word of power from the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz. “The fact that you want to expel an ambassador from a friendly country that was the victim of a bestial war of annihilation and is bleeding to death just because he speaks plain language is an unprecedented slapstick,” Melnyk told the “Bild” newspaper.
Lehmann had demanded the expulsion of the outgoing ambassador after he had invited the Saxon CDU Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer to visit Ukraine at the weekend. “I’m tired of Ambassador Melnyk constantly complaining about Germany, uninviting politicians and sometimes insulting them. The camel’s back has overflowed!” Lehmann wrote on Instagram on Monday. “Andriy Melnyk should be expelled and should therefore quickly be declared persona non grata so that he can leave Germany quickly.”
Ukraine has been resisting the Russian invasion for more than six months and is attempting to regain territories captured by Russia. Lehmann wrote that he believes Germany is doing a lot for Ukraine – be it humanitarian, economic or military aid. “Ambassador Melnyk should also recognize that instead of being offended by a prime minister who has a differentiated view of the war and its outcome.” Because after six months of war one must also be able to talk about how and in what form this could end.
As usual, Melnyk responded to this demand with undiplomatic words: “What kind of beer does one have to have drunk to be outraged at the barbaric aggression of Russia, that the last straw has overflowed?” As an ambassador, Melnyk is controversial in Germany because he didn’t always pay attention to the customs in diplomatic circles and sometimes used harsh words to promote arms deliveries to Ukraine. In the meantime, Melnyk has been recalled. He will leave Germany in October and will take up a new post in the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv.