All farewells are difficult - and probably even harder when accompanied by adverse circumstances. In view of the war and inner turmoil that plagues his country, Melnyk, who is still ambassador, shows a lot of feelings towards Germany before his return to Ukraine.
Saying goodbye to Berlin is not easy for the Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk after seven and a half years in the diplomatic service in Germany. "Yes, this farewell is actually very difficult for me and my family because we felt very comfortable in Germany, because we loved this country, but above all because we made many new friends for Ukraine," said Melnyk in an interview with the Editorial network Germany.
Melnyk had regularly drawn criticism in Berlin's political scene, for example by calling Chancellor Olaf Scholz an "offended liverwurst", which he had made in the course of a discussion about travel plans for high-ranking German officials to Ukraine. At the end of his service in Berlin, however, the conciliatory memories seem to prevail.
"It was a conscious decision to go to Berlin because I always had the feeling that I could do a lot for my homeland based on my experience here. And I have to say that I really enjoyed the work," says the diplomat. During his tenure in Berlin, he "rejected some very attractive offers from Kyiv just because the job was so important to me and the task was very exciting".
According to the current status, Melnyk will remain in office in Berlin until the end of September and then move to Kyiv from October. "There is a proposal by my Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fully supports, that I should move to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry as his deputy," Melnyk said. "I am very grateful to them for their trust. But according to the constitution, the decision is made by our government. So I don't want to anticipate this."
