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No, it's not clear, what he was "dismissed" for, he wasn't publicly condemned by the Ukrainian president. And "dismissed" means he was made Deputy Foreign Minis
by protomolecule 2y ago
No, it's not clear, what he was "dismissed" for, he wasn't publicly condemned by the Ukrainian president. And "dismissed" means he was made Deputy Foreign Minister and half a year later assigned to the position of the ambassador to Brazil. In fact, in the news reports the Bandera remarks weren't mentioned at all or at best mentioned after the words "also coincided".
"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that he had dismissed several of Kyiv's senior envoys abroad, including the country's outspoken ambassador to Germany.
Zelenskiy announced the sacking of Ukraine's ambassadors to Germany, India, the Czech Republic, Norway and Hungary and said new candidates were being readied for the positions.
"This rotation is a normal part of diplomatic practice," he said in a statement.
The 46-year-old regularly engages in outspoken social media exchanges and has branded politicians and intellectuals who oppose arming Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion as appeasers.
He once accused German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of behaving like an "offended liver sausage" when Scholz did not immediately accept an invitation by Zelenskiy to visit Kyiv." [0]
"Melnyk was critical of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, accusing him of having too many close Russian connections. He also became embroiled in a dispute with Chancellor Olaf Scholz after Steinmeier was told he was not wanted on a visit to Kyiv earlier in the war. When Scholz called Ukraine's snub of the German president unfortunate, Melnyk used a German idiom to imply that he was feigning insult and was overreacting to the situation.
Melnyk had defended himself in the past, when charged with being undiplomatic in his tone, by saying the time for unflinchingly deferential diplomacy had passed for a Ukraine fighting a defensive war for its survival as a state.
His departure from Berlin also coincided quite closely with comments of his defending wartime nationalist Ukrainian leader Stepan Bandera, who still divides opinion in Ukraine and abroad. " [1]
[0] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/zelenskiy-sacks-ukraines-envoy-germany-other-ambassadors-2022-07-09/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/zelenskiy-sacks-ukraine...
[1] https://www.dw.com/en/kyivs-ex-envoy-to-berlin-takes-deputy-foreign-minister-post/a-63816305 https://www.dw.com/en/kyivs-ex-envoy-to-berlin-takes-deputy-...
- aguaviva 2y ago"This rotation is a normal part of diplomatic practice," he said in a statement. And it's just the usual slightly obfuscated language that governments and corporations use in regard to departures of this sort. Everyone at the time knew what led to what, and why he got ousted.
- protomolecule 2y agoYeah, right, and calling the head of state that gave the most weapons in the EU "offended liver sausage" was a smart diplomatic move.
- aguaviva 2y agoMeanwhile, we have someone of substantially higher rank within the Russian diplomatic corps not merely insulting, but openly threatening to assassinate the entire executive leadership of a foreign newspaper he doesn't like. Except it isn't considered to be a gaffe, but an eloquent expression of the core values that the current regime stands for: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/18/dmitry-medvedev-says-editors-of-the-times-are-legitimate-military-targets https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/18/dmitry-medvede... A smart diplomatic move, indeed.
- protomolecule 2y agoIf that newspaper was Chinese or Indian, yep, that would've been extremely dumb. You can't possibly not see the difference and yet you wrote your comment. This is the last time I've replied to you. Bye.