In less than a month, the current Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk will leave Germany. Jens Lehmann, a CDU member of the Bundestag from Leipzig, is not going fast enough: he is demanding that the outgoing Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk be expelled.
“I’m tired of Ambassador Melnyk constantly complaining about Germany, uninviting and sometimes insulting politicians. The camel has overflowed!” Lehmann wrote on Instagram on Monday.
“Andrij Melnyk is expelled and should therefore be quickly declared persona non grata so that he can leave Germany quickly.” The trigger for the affront is that Melnyk invited the Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) to visit Ukraine at the weekend.
“With your absurd rhetoric about freezing the war, you are playing into Putin’s hands and fueling Russia’s aggression,” Melnyk wrote on Twitter. Kretschmer had previously called for the war to be “frozen”.
Ukraine has been resisting the Russian invasion for more than six months and is attempting to regain territories captured by Russia.
Lehmann wrote that he believes Germany is doing a lot for Ukraine – be it humanitarian, economic or military aid.
“Ambassador Melnyk should also recognize that, instead of being offended by a prime minister who has a differentiated view of the war and its outcome.” After six months of war, one must also be able to talk about how and in what form it will end could.
After Lehmann’s demand, Melnyk reacted again and demanded a word of power from the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz in the evening.
The “Bild” said Melnyk: “The fact that an ambassador from a friendly country that was the victim of a bestial war of annihilation and is bleeding out wants to be expelled just because he speaks plain language is an unprecedented mess.”
And further: “What kind of beer do you have to have drunk to be outraged, especially in the face of Russia’s barbaric aggression, that the camel has overflowed?” He is looking forward to the CDU chairman’s word of power.
It’s a long time coming: When asked by the Tagesspiegel, Friedrich Merz’s office said that he did not want to comment on the incident at the moment.
The same applies to Union Secretary General Mario Czaja. “Mr. Lehmann made his statements as a member of parliament and did not speak for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group,” says the press office of the CDU parliamentary group.
As an ambassador, Melnyk is controversial in Germany because he did not always pay attention to diplomatic conventions and sometimes used harsh words to promote arms deliveries to Ukraine.
