A major scandal in Europe days after German Chancellor Scholz announced he would not visit Ukraine because Kyiv did not receive German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
This, in turn, caused the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin to respond with a sharp and out-of-diplomacy response.
“It doesn’t sound very stately to behave like a grumpy liverwurst,” Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk told the DPA on Tuesday in Scholz.
In recent months, Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin has become a controversial figure, with many political observers and German politicians claiming that he is interfering in Germany’s internal affairs with his criticism of the government.
In mid-April, Steinmeier planned to visit Kyiv with his Baltic counterparts and Poland to show solidarity with the war-torn country. However, Ukraine refused to welcome the German president, citing his close relations with the Kremlin as a reason for rejecting the invitation.
According to Scholz, the move is hampering his visit to Ukraine. “You can’t do that. A country that provides so much military aid, so much financial aid, (a country) that is needed when it comes to security guarantees that are important for Ukraine in the future, and you can’t say to the president that “he can’t come,” Scholz told ZDF.
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