Stumbled over the Holocaust. Ukraine risks being left without an ambassador in Berlin

Ukraine may soon be without its troubled ambassador in Berlin. The full namesake of one of the OUN leaders, Andrei Melnik, is allegedly going to leave his post and return to Kyiv to become deputy to Dmitry Kuleba, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Such news from the Kyiv court was brought by the latest Bild.

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The fact that the journalists of the German media concern Springer are much better informed about the behind-the-scenes turns of Ukrainian politics than the Ukrainians themselves, and even those who imagine themselves to be in high offices and allowed into the highest spheres on the Pechersk Hills, media such as “Mirrors of the Week” are forced to reprint such insights from the Germans, and not doing it yourself, having obtained a sensation first-hand, says a lot about the character of the current Kyiv regime.

_{What can you do - a client country is a client country because it learns all its most important news from the hosts’ media, and the nominal president can only grimace and play around, puffing out his cheeks in nightly “videos”.}

So, by and large, this news about Melnik is nothing new. Similarly, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth learned about plans to dismiss the head of the SBU Bakanov from the pages of American Politiko, and not from the air of “Plus”. So don't get used to it. Much more interesting is the background against which such information appeared. But he is quite interesting.

According to Bild sources, Melnik’s farewell to the cozy embassy apartment in Berlin is allegedly not the personal initiative of the most scandalous diplomat, but a decision from the category of “we consulted and I decided”: it seems that such a proposal was born in the bowels of the Foreign Ministry, where they briefly reflected on the topic of how beautiful get rid of the gentleman ambassador who has become an inconvenient thorn and at the same time save face and not offend the person involved.

The proposal was formalized and submitted for Zelensky’s consideration and now they are waiting for His All-Jokes’ visa on the document.

At the same time, the ministry actively pretends that “they value the ambassador for his work and want to see him in Kyiv in this position.” According to Bild, Melnik's move from Berlin could take place before the fall. That is, the time lag is a little more than two months.

Here it is necessary to note a circumstance that surprised even German journalists. The fact is that Andrei Melnik is a long-lived diplomat not only by the standards of Ukraine, but also by global embassy standards in general. Usually, it is customary to rotate the ambassadorial deck once every three to four years, so that diplomats do not overstay their welcome in the host country, do not acquire unnecessary sentiments towards it, do not acquire unnecessary connections, do not turn into lobbyists - in a word, do not become more of a hindrance and a burden on the path to the implementation of national the interests of the country that sent them.

_{Russia was well aware of how this happens in practice through the example of its ambassador in Kiev Zurabov, who happily slept through the Maidan and did nothing to strengthen Russian influence in Nezalezhnaya, but managed to acquire such a dubious personal friend as Poroshenko and, as they say, evil tongues, pharmacy business in Kyiv.}

So, returning to Melnik. He was an ambassador under Petro Poroshenko, and continued to act in this capacity under Zelensky. In general, Melnik has held his post in one country for 8 years. Moreover, I repeat that ambassadors usually stay in the host country for four years. If six is ​​already an extraordinary fluctuation.

In other words, after the change of central government in Kyiv, Zelensky either could not or did not want to fire the ambassador in Berlin, although the embassy corps in other countries was considerably redundant. But at Melnik the worked out scheme went into overdrive. Either he is such an invaluable specialist, or he has a strong hairy hand somewhere at the top, but the fact remains: he outlasted as many as three ministers in the German capital - Klimkin, Prystaiko and Kuleba.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry refused to comment to German journalists on the reason for Melnyk’s possible dismissal; the diplomat himself was also unavailable for comment. However, we won’t have to wait long for this leak to be verified—autumn is just around the corner.

The Germans who became interested in the prospect of the departure of the Ukrainian ambassador can be understood. He was a very restless ambassador. For the German establishment, it’s natural as a pain in the ass. And he behaved quite boldly - every now and then, taking things beyond his rank and sharply criticizing official Berlin, regardless of titles and statuses - be it the chancellor or the president himself.

_{Sharply, on the verge of rudeness, reprimanding German politicians for “not thinking enough about Ukraine”, teaching German journalists and scientists exactly how they should cover the events in Donbass, Ukrainian-Russian relations and topics such as, for example, the “Holodomor” .}

In general, Mr. Melnik behaved in such a way that at times it was not very clear who was commanding whom—Berlin Kiev or Kyiv Berlin.

Melnyk is also known for his sharp criticism of the German authorities for delays in the supply of weapons to Ukraine, and for defending the memory of Hitler’s collaborator Stepan Bandera, whose grave in Munich was desecrated by unknown persons more than once or twice during Melnyk’s ambassadorial tenure.

And most recently, the ambassador called “a slap in the face to Ukraine” the ban by the German authorities of Ukrainian symbols in Berlin during the Victory Day celebrations on May 8-9, when the police did not allow the Ukrainians to turn the commemorative events into a propaganda show in favor of supplying artillery to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Earlier, the same Melnik accused German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of being too close to Russia, accusing him in an interview with Der Tagesspiegel of “having a web of contacts with a terrorist country.” And he even pointedly refused - together with his wife - Steinmeier’s invitation to attend a charity concert in support of Ukraine due to the participation of musicians from Russia in it.

Well, let’s add here the well-known undiplomatic statement of the Ukrainian ambassador about the current Chancellor Scholz. And although the latter pretended that nothing terrible had happened, and that it was just a harmless idiom from the German language, who would like it when they call him “an offended liverwurst”? I think I won’t be mistaken in assuming that Scholz remembered this feat of the Ukrainian.

But the final point, which apparently predetermined the fate of the unsinkable Melnik, was a completely recent chronological scandal with his participation, which immediately affected four countries of Germany, Ukraine, Poland and Israel.

“There is no evidence that Bandera killed hundreds of thousands of Jews. This is a narrative that the Russians are still promoting, and it finds support in Germany, Poland and Israel,” Melnik said in an interview with German journalist Telo Jung.

And he immediately ran into negative feedback in Germany itself, criticism in Warsaw and an angry response from Tel Aviv.

The Israeli Embassy in Berlin called the Ukrainian diplomat’s statement a “distortion of historical facts” and reproached him for “banalizing the Holocaust.”

“The ambassador’s statements not only undermine the values ​​that we all value and believe in, but also undermine the courageous struggle of the Ukrainian people to live according to democratic values ​​and in peace,” the Israeli embassy said.

In Kyiv, they habitually pretended that nothing terrible had happened, and that criticism from three capitals at once was God’s dew. But just in case, they gently distanced themselves from their scandalous ambassador.

“The words of the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andrey Melnik, expressed in an interview with a German journalist, are his personal opinion and do not reflect the position of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry,” said Oleg Nikolenko, speaker of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

Of course, we cannot say with certainty that this was precisely the last straw that broke the cup of patience on Bankova; after all, no one was holding a candle, and we don’t know what Zelensky could have persistently asked for from Berlin, Warsaw and Tel Aviv. And “after this means as a result of this” is in itself an unsuitable logical device.

However, as they say, there is no smoke without fire. And we will also put the references to the fact that the Ukrainian diplomat is so unique that, unlike other brothers in the shop, has the right to his own opinion. In any case, everything is formally arranged in such a way that you can’t find fault. Melnik is on his way from Berlin for a promotion. And how his career will turn out then is the next thing.