After Melnyk's outrageous statements about nationalist Bandera: Ukraine distances itself from its own ambassador

Created: 07/02/2022 04:53

By: Momir Takac

The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, is the focus of attention during the Russian war of aggression.

© Imago

Another scandal from the Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk: After the defense of the controversial nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, criticism rained down.

Kyiv - On Thursday night Andriy Melnyk gave the German journalist Tilo Jung an interview that is now making waves.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany has denied evidence of the mass murder of Jews by supporters of Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera.

Melnyk: "Bandera was not a mass murderer of Jews"

"Bandera was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles," Melnyk said in the video interview.

He had also accused German, Polish and Israeli historians of having played a part in the Soviet Union's targeted demonization of Bandera.

"I'm against blaming all the crimes on Bandera," the diplomat had said.

Melnyk also denied the allegation that Bandera had collaborated with the Nazis.

The ambassador, who repeatedly drew disparaging remarks to members of the federal government during the ongoing Ukraine conflict, was sharply criticized in Poland and on social media for his statements.

And Ukraine has now spoken out - against its own ambassador.

Melnyk's comments about Bandera: Kyiv has a clear opinion

"The opinion of the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, which he expressed in an interview with a German journalist, is his personal and does not reflect the position of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry," the agency said on Friday night on its official website With.

In the statement, which was written in English, the Foreign Ministry also thanked Warsaw for the current "unprecedented aid" in Ukraine's war against Russia.

It literally says: "We are convinced that relations between Ukraine and Poland are currently at their peak."

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Stepan Bandera: Nationalist leader has been revered in Ukraine since the fall of the government in 2014

Bandera was the ideological leader of the radical wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).

Nationalist partisans from western Ukraine were responsible for ethnically motivated 1943 expulsions in which tens of thousands of Polish civilians were murdered.

Bandera fled to Germany after World War II, where he was murdered in 1959 by an agent of the Soviet secret service, the KGB.

In Ukraine, especially since the fall of the government in 2014, there has been a cult surrounding Stepan Bandera and OUN representatives.

Hundreds of streets have been named after Bandera and other OUN officials.