“You are UNWANTED”
Ukrainian Ambassador Melnyk invites Saxony’s Prime Minister Kretschmer
The outgoing ambassador Andrij Melnyk reacted with sharp words to the statements made by Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer
© AFP
Andriy Melnyk reacts to statements made by Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer on the war in Ukraine. The outgoing ambassador, who is handing over his duties in October, withdrew an invitation to visit Ukraine.
The outgoing Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, has withdrawn an invitation from the CDU politician to his homeland because of statements made by Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer about the Ukraine war. “With your absurd rhetoric about freezing the war, you are playing into Putin’s hands and fueling Russia’s aggression,” Melnyk wrote on Twitter early on Sunday. Therefore, his invitation to Kretschmer to visit Ukraine was “cancelled”.
“They are undesirable. Period,” added the ambassador. Melnyk was reacting to statements by the Saxon head of government in the ZDF program “Markus Lanz” on Wednesday. In it, Kretschmer said it was important “to stand up for the fact that this war has to be frozen, that we need a ceasefire, that we need negotiations to end this war”. However, he experiences “very little” in the public debate.
Kretschmer campaigns for the end of the war in Ukraine
In the program, Kretschmer condemned “this terrible crime” in view of the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. “Russia must not win the war, that’s absolutely right,” emphasized the CDU politician. However, in this war “no attempts should be made to be decided on the battlefield, because that could have such dire consequences for all of us”.
Kretschmer emphasized that diplomacy offers the opportunity to talk to each other, even “if you have completely different opinions, if you are enemies”.
Melnyk has been ambassador to Germany since the end of 2014 and has repeatedly caused a stir with sharp criticism of German politicians. He described Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) as “offended liverwurst” when the German head of government initially refused his own trip to Kyiv after President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had been invited from Ukraine.
In early July, the Ukrainian head of state, Volodymyr Zelensky, signed a decree recalling Melnyk from Berlin. He is scheduled to hand over the business to his successor in October.