Ukraine war
Melnyk invites Kretschmer: “You are not wanted”
Andrij Melnyk does not want to receive Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer in Ukraine. photo
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
At Lanz, Kretscher said the war in Ukraine must be “frozen.” This annoys the Ukrainian ambassador – albeit belatedly.
The outgoing Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk has invited the Prime Minister of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, to visit Ukraine. “With your absurd rhetoric about freezing the war, you are playing into Putin’s hands & fueling Russia’s aggression,” Melnyk wrote on Twitter on Sunday. He once invited the CDU politician to Ukraine. “This invitation is cancelled. You are UNWANTED. Period,” Melnyk wrote.
The 46-year-old referred to a program on Markus Lanz’s ZDF talk show, which was already running on Wednesday. There Kretschmer again called for the war in Ukraine to be frozen. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Since then, the attacked country has resisted the invasion and tried to regain territories conquered by Russia.
Kretschmer said at Lanz that it was important to argue in the debate that this war had to be frozen. “That we need a truce, that we need negotiations to end this war.” At the same time, the CDU politician clearly condemned the Russian war of aggression in the program.
As an ambassador, Melnyk is controversial in Germany because he did not always pay attention to diplomatic conventions 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.