Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany Andrij Melnyk. This is apparent from a decree published by the President’s Office. The diplomat was recently criticized for statements about Ukrainian nationalist and anti-Semite Stepan Bandera.
Bandera was the leader of the radical wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) during World War II. He is considered by many in Western Ukraine as a national hero of the resistance against the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, by other Ukrainians he is seen as a collaborator with the Nazis. After the war he moved to Germany. He was sentenced to death in absentia in the Soviet Union and murdered by a KGB agent in Munich in 1959.
Melnyk, who is also known for his vehement criticism of Germany’s response to the war in Ukraine, had defended Bandera in an interview with a German journalist, stating that he was “not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles”. According to Melnyk, the figure of Bandera was deliberately discredited by the Soviet Union.
Melnyk received a lot of criticism for this, including from the Israeli embassy. He accused him of distorting historical facts, downplaying the Holocaust and insulting those killed by Bandera.
According to the German media, rumors circulated a few days ago that Melnyk would return to Kiev this year and start working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to ‘Bild’ Melnyk may become deputy minister of foreign affairs. Under the decree, Ukrainian ambassadors in Norway, the Czech Republic, Hungary and India will also be fired. A reason was not communicated.
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