Kyiv (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has sacked his country’s ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk. This emerged from a decree published by the Office of the President in Kyiv on Saturday.

In addition to Melnyk, Ukraine’s ambassadors to Norway, the Czech Republic, Hungary and India were also dismissed, according to the Office of the President. The reasons for or future use of diplomats were not stated at first.

Sharp critic of the federal government

Melnyk has made a name for himself as a fierce critic of the federal government. The 46-year-old was recently criticized for statements about Ukrainian nationalists and the anti-Semitic Stepan Bandera.

The “Bild” and “Süddeutsche Zeitung” have reported, citing Ukrainian sources, that Melnyk should be recalled and transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv. He could become Deputy Secretary of State in the fall, Bild wrote.

Ambassador to Germany since 2015

Melnyk has been ambassador to Germany since January 2015 – a very long time for a diplomat in a single post. Commentators in Kyiv also said on Saturday that this is about double the usual posting time.

In recent months, the diplomat has also caused a stir with his sharp criticism of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). Among other things, he accused Scholz and his ministers of being too hesitant to send weapons against Russian attackers in Ukraine.

Allegations of underestimating the Holocaust

Last week he himself came under heavy criticism for his statements about Ukrainian nationalists and the anti-Semitic Stepan Bandera. Bandera was the leader of the radical wing of the Ukrainian Nationalist Organization (OUN) during World War II. Nationalist partisans from western Ukraine were responsible for the ethnically motivated expulsion in 1943, in which tens of thousands of Polish and Jewish civilians were killed.

In an interview with journalist Tilo Jung, Melnyk denied that Bandera was a mass murderer of Jews and Poles. Nationalists were deliberately demonized by the Soviet Union. The Israeli embassy later accused the ambassador of “distorting historical facts, belittling the Holocaust and insulting those killed by Bandera and his people”.

The shrewd Melnyk then said nothing about it for days, but then responded to the allegations with a tweet on Tuesday. He also emphatically conveyed his words to “dear fellow Jews”. Melnyk spoke of unreasonable accusations, which he categorically denied. “Anyone who knows me knows: I have always condemned the Holocaust in the strongest possible way.” The Nazi crimes of the Holocaust were a shared tragedy for Ukraine and Israel.

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