Andriy Melnyk could have been the most undiplomatic diplomat ever to serve in Germany. He is now back in Kyiv. But he continues to interfere in local debates.
Andriy Melnyk has been back in Ukraine since the weekend. But anyone who thought that the eloquent statements of the former ambassador were over was wrong. Melnyk just seems to pick up where he left off. In the past few days he has continued to tweet in German and, as usual, has been involved in the local debate on Ukraine.
On Sunday, for example, he took on Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. She had said that Ukraine's air defenses were more important than German tanks. Which goes well with the line taken by the German government, which supplies air defense systems but does not want to send domestically produced Leopard tanks to Ukraine. "Sorry, not quite right," wrote Melnyk. "BOTH weapon systems are vital for the Ukrainians." The Greens and Baerbock should work with Chancellor Olaf Scholz to "finally give the green light for Leoparde".
On the same day he turned to Chancellor Wolfgang Schmidt with the same demand. At a congress of the think tank "Das Progressive Zentrum" he said that in Germany people believe that battle tanks are a miracle weapon. "Dear Federal Minister," wrote Melnyk. "Please put all the bogus arguments aside. Ukraine urgently needs German Leopard battle tanks to defend the occupied areas
On Monday, there was a call to the traffic light coalition to impose sanctions against Iran because the Islamic Republic is supplying combat drones to Russia, and a tweet to FDP foreign policy officer Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, who had expressed skepticism. Lambsdorff said Russia was controlling the drones, not Iran. "The mullah regime knows EXACTLY what it is doing when Tehran sells these murderous kamikaze drones to the terrorist state of Russia. They kill pregnant women
This Thursday, after the arson attack on a refugee home for Ukrainian refugees, Melnyk asked outraged what Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig was doing to prevent such crimes. "The political agitation is becoming increasingly unbearable." But Melnyk also posts impressions from Kyiv - such as an air alert and intercepted missiles.
Melnyk was Ukraine's ambassador for seven years - and for most of that time he didn't attract much attention. That changed with Russia's attack on Melnyk's homeland. Gradually he shed all diplomatic shackles and demanded more and more help from Germany with increasing determination. This gave him a certain cult status, but also attracted heavy criticism. His successor Oleksii Makeiev has not yet attracted attention with eloquent statements on Twitter. He probably doesn't have to - Melnyk is still there, so to speak.
