Bild: The German Foreign Ministry hosted a “special” farewell dinner for Ukrainian Ambassador Melnyk. He is finishing his term

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany hosted a "special" farewell dinner for Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk. He is completing his term in this position.

This is written by Bild with reference to its own sources.

Such events are traditional for ambassadors of foreign countries who finish their work in Germany. However, an exceptional farewell dinner was arranged for Melnyk at the German Foreign Ministry. In particular, unlike most ambassadors, it was not the head of the department or his deputy who said goodbye to him but Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tobias Lindner.

Sources of the publication in the department said that Melnyk was given a state farewell in order to express "clear recognition" of the German Foreign Ministry. Such a farewell occurs "only in a few exceptional cases."

During his farewell, Melnyk thanked Germany for the support it provides. He noted that he did not always "follow the form". But after the full-scale invasion, Ukraine was "on the verge of collapse", so his behavior should be interpreted as "cries for help".

At the beginning of May, it became known that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused to go to Kyiv due to the fact that shortly before that, the Ukrainian authorities refused to receive President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the capital. Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany Andriy Melnyk called Sholtz "an insulted liver sausage".

And in June, Melnyk sent "to hell" a group of German intellectuals who called on Western countries to stop military support for Kyiv and to create conditions for negotiations as soon as possible.

• On July 9, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi dismissed a number of ambassadors of Ukraine in various countries. In particular, the president fired Andrii Melnyk, the ambassador to Germany, who became very famous in that country thanks to merciless criticism of the local government for its stance on aid to Ukraine. The German publication BILD, citing sources in the Ukrainian government, reported that Melnyk will be appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
• On September 23, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed a decree on the appointment of a new ambassador of Ukraine to Germany. He will be diplomat Oleksiy Makeev.