He will be remembered by many as an irritant: Hardly anyone has polarized people as much as Andriy Melnyk, the controversial and pugnacious Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, in recent months.
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Civil society diplomats usually go under the radar – with the possible exception of former US Ambassador Richard Grenell, who was anything but diplomatic, and Swiss Thomas Borer, who once stirred up political Berlin with a delicate sex affair.
But we don’t live in ordinary times. And so Melnyk attracted attention at least from the beginning of the aggressive war against Ukraine because he was loud, uncomfortable and omnipresent. On talk shows, on Twitter, in print and on the radio, he gave free rein to his anger at the German government’s supposed reluctance.
That will soon be over: Melnyk will be called back to Kyiv in the fall. This emerged from a decree published by the President’s Office in Kyiv on Saturday. In addition to Melnyk, Ukraine’s ambassadors to Norway, the Czech Republic, Hungary and India have also been recalled, according to the President’s Office. Reasons or a future use of the diplomats were not mentioned.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the recall of Ambassador Andriy Melnyk from Germany as a normal process.
Melnyk has been living in Berlin with his wife and two children since 2015
“Today I signed decrees dismissing some ambassadors of Ukraine. This issue of rotation is a common part of diplomatic practice,” he said in a video message on Saturday, without naming any of the five ambassadors. New candidates would be prepared by the State Department. Melnyk has been living in Berlin with his wife and two children since 2015.
Four or six years is the rule for an ambassador’s term of office, so at eight years Melnyk has been in office for an above-average period of time. It was always discussed that he should be replaced in this position.
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However, it cannot be denied that there has been more and more crunching in the woodwork in recent months. Melnyk, who has now become a media star with almost 140,000 followers on Twitter, enjoyed unbroken support from Kyiv for a long time.
But in the end he was called back again and again. In particular, the interview with the journalist Tilo Jung had recently slipped from his grasp: Melnyk had described the former Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera as the “quintessential freedom fighter in Ukraine”.
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) led by Bandera wanted to establish an ethnically homogeneous state of Ukrainians, in which there should be no place for Jews and for Poles. Militias invoking Bandera’s OUN are said to have been involved in the murder of tens of thousands of Jews and Poles in western Ukraine between 1942 and 1944 during the German occupation.
Bandera was not a mass murderer, he did not give the order to exterminate Jews, said Melnyk. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry distanced itself from it. So there are at least doubts that his departure from Germany is part of a normal rotation.
Melnyk went far beyond the scope of diplomacy
In Germany, Andrij Melnyk has long since lost the reputation of being the personified pain in the ass. Many politicians felt that he had gone far beyond the scope of diplomacy. He also aroused dissatisfaction outside of parliament, for example by calling Chancellor Olaf Scholz an “offended liverwurst” and repeatedly harshly criticizing Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
“For Steinmeier, the relationship with Russia was and remains something fundamental, even sacred, no matter what happens. The war of aggression doesn’t play a major role either,” Melnyk told the Tagesspiegel.
Again and again he publicly denounced not being heard by politicians. “With all understanding for the existential threat to Ukraine from the Russian invasion, I expect Ukrainian representatives to adhere to a minimum of diplomatic customs and not interfere unduly in our country’s domestic politics,” said SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich, criticizing Melnyk’s behavior and pushing with a lot of encouragement.
He described Olaf Scholz as “offended liver sausage”
However, Melnyk was not intimidated by this, he would not be silenced, was his reply. You may be able to accuse the lawyer of a number of things, but not that he shies away from conflict.
Yes, Melnyk made mistakes and probably constantly violated an unspoken code of diplomatic etiquette. But the truth is that Melnyk has done a lot for his country. He played a key role in shaping the debate about the delivery of heavy weapons and Ukraine’s accession to the EU, and in recent months has been constantly calling for as much help as possible for his country.
Melnyk briefed the Germans on Ukraine’s perspective. The eloquent German-speaking Lemberger has led political actors and the media to question German policy towards Putin.
That he was annoying? gift. The 46-year-old is rumored to be the new deputy foreign minister in Kyiv, so his departure would not mean demotion. It is not to be expected that he will be quieter there, we will certainly continue to hear from him.
