Ukraine's ambassador to Germany shows the face of dubious Ukrainian culture. Opinion

18.04.2022, Moscow.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin Andrey Melnik has long impressed the public and politicians in Germany with his “diplomacy”, showing what it is – the Ukrainian political culture, Rossa Primavera News Agency editorial published on April 18 reads.

Earlier, Melnik lashed out with swear words on Twitter at former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel after the latter’s attempt to slightly reprimand the Ukrainian ambassador – to stop his denigration of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“Note that Melnik has long impressed the public and politicians in Germany with his ‘diplomacy,’ showing what it is – the Ukrainian political culture. He has long indiscriminately and without denying himself anything showed rudeness towards any of the German politicians who allow themselves to be insufficiently complimentary to Ukraine or do not show the proper degree of Russophobia.

Melnik has offended many people, from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig for her interest in the Nord Stream 2 project to President Steinmeier himself. Melnik often hits hard at the German government as a whole: either Germany does not deliver weapons on time, or it delivers little and not what Ukraine demanded.

Experts say that the dissatisfaction with the boorish behavior of the Ukrainian ambassador is growing in Germany. However, Gabriel’s criticism should be perceived not only as an attempt of the former politician to support Steinmeier. Gabriel is even now an influential figure, chairman of the Atlantic Bridge, the leading association for the promotion of German-US mututal understanding and Atlanticism. In addition, he has wide connections in big German business.

Thus, given Gabriel’s political weight and his ties to the United States, his attempt to lash out at Melnick could have been perceived by the latter as a signal far more significant than criticism of any rank-and-file politician. But Melnik does not want to control himself. How this will end – time will tell.

After Melnik spent several days criticizing President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who had already repented of his non-confrontational policy towards Russia and whom Kiev did not want to see, former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel expressed his dissatisfaction with the Ukrainian Ambassador’s behavior and stood up for Steinmeier.

Gabriel called Melnik’s accusations against Steinmeier “untrue and malicious” as well as a dangerous “variant of the conspiracy theory.” Melnyk immediately responded with a scolding, calling the longstanding Putin-friendly policies of Gabriel and his “SPD cronies” malicious.

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