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Ambassador Andriy Melnyk
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Christian Spicker / IMAGO
Andriy Melnyk has criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz's preliminary no to a trip to Kyiv.
"Playing an insulted liver sausage doesn't sound very statesmanlike," the Ukrainian ambassador scoffed at the German Press Agency.
"It's about the most brutal war of annihilation since the Nazi attack on Ukraine, it's not a kindergarten," Melnyk is quoted as saying.
Scholz had said on ZDF on Monday evening that Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier's unloading through Ukraine would stand in the way of his trip.
Steinmeier actually wanted to go to Kyiv with the heads of state of Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in mid-April, but was rejected at short notice.
It remains a "remarkable event" that Ukraine has uninvited a German head of state who has been re-elected by a large majority, Scholz said on the ZDF program "What now, Mr. Scholz?".
Scholz said on ZDF: “It cannot work that a country that provides so much military aid, so much financial aid that is needed when it comes to the security guarantees that are needed for Ukraine in the future are important that you then say, but the President cannot come.«
Melnyk replied that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would still be happy to receive Scholz in Kyiv.
But the ambassador also said: "What Ukraine would be looking forward to much more than any symbolic visits is that the traffic light government will implement the Bundestag's proposal for the delivery of heavy weapons quickly and fulfill the promises made so far."
The ambassador criticized the fact that no ammunition had yet been found for the promised Gepard anti-aircraft tanks.
The tanks are the first heavy weapons to be delivered directly from Germany to Ukraine.
as/dpa
