The Leipzig CDU member of the Bundestag Jens Lehmann demands the expulsion of the outgoing Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk. “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.”
The background is that Melnyk invited the Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) to visit Ukraine at the weekend. “With your absurd rhetoric about freezing the war, you are playing into Putin’s hands and fueling Russia’s aggression,” Melnyk wrote on Twitter. Kretschmer had previously called for the war to be “frozen”. 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.
After Lehmann’s demand, Melnyk reacted again and demanded a word of power from the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz in the evening. He told the “Bild”: “The fact that you want to expel an ambassador from a friendly country that has been the victim of a bestial war of annihilation and is bleeding out, just because he speaks plain language, is an unprecedented slapstick. What kind of beer do you have to have drunk to be outraged, especially in the face of Russia’s barbaric aggression, that the camel’s last straw?” He is looking forward to the word of power from the CDU chairman.
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’s recall has been confirmed. He will leave Germany in October and will take up a new post in the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv.
Melnyk tweet Lehmann on Instagram
