Melnyk’s dismissal: between gratitude and criticism

The dismissal of the Ukrainian ambassador Melnyk has triggered mixed reactions in political Berlin. The FDP politician Strack-Zimmermann describes him as a vocal fighter.

It is a mixture of gratitude and criticism with which the chairwoman of the Defense Committee Andriy Melnyk pays tribute: Marie Agnes-Strack-Zimmermann describes the Ukrainian Ambassador Melnyk as “loud, uncomfortable and extremely argumentative”. More of a politician than a diplomat, he said, “with his statements, he sometimes pushed the Germans to the limits of what was tolerable and also clearly exceeded them.”

The FDP politician refers to that ARD Capital Studio However, it is also due to the fact that Melnyk had been in office for an unusually long time at the age of seven and tried to “open our eyes and shake us up”. He was the vocal fighter for a country that was at a terrible war. “You have to thank him for the pressure he put on Germany so that we could finally speed up our support for Ukraine,” said Strack-Zimmermann.

Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt praised Melnyk as “an unmistakable and tireless voice for a free Ukraine”. At the same time, the Green politician made it clear that she did not share his views on the Ukrainian nationalist and anti-Semite Stepan Bandera.

No “punitive action”, but normal process

In an interview, Melnyk denied that Bandera was a mass murderer of Jews and Poles during World War II. Whether these statements are a reason why the diplomat has to vacate his post remains open.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj described the dismissal as a “normal process” and four other embassy posts around the world would be filled.

The former head of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, also considers this “not a punitive action” but a normal process, as he told the broadcaster Welt.

“Committed Fighter”

AfD foreign policy expert Petr Bystron found that Melnyk should have been recalled much earlier. And the SPD politician Joe Weingarten believes that Melnyk has become a burden on Ukrainian-German relations.

Green MP Robin Wagener, on the other hand, tweeted that he had come to know and appreciate Melnyk as a committed campaigner for Ukraine.

Sharp-tongued critic of the federal government

Melnyk was seen in Berlin as a sharp-tongued critic of the federal government. The diplomat, who speaks excellent German, constantly accused Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz of being too hesitant about delivering arms. In the dispute over his visit to Kyiv, he described the chancellor as an “offended liverwurst.”

While some saw Melnyk’s push into the public eye as presumptuous, others praised him for trying to save his country and holding up a mirror to the Germans.