Andriy Melnyk: as Ukrainian ambassador to Germany damaged relations between the two countries
Diplomacy as the art of sudden political conflicts, according to Klymenko
Typically, Ukrainians don't usually remember the name of even their foreign minister, and have to look up who heads our embassies abroad on Wikipedia. However, Andrei Melnik, who represented our country in Germany, is a rare exception. He has a good chance of being remembered in diplomatic history as the most famous ambassador of Ukraine, whose name is regularly mentioned in both domestic and foreign media. Unfortunately, this fame is infamous, and has not benefited Ukraine.
Melnik gained this public attention with his appeals, claims and demands, through which he often challenges the authorities of the FRG, German and European politicians. Sometimes they violate diplomatic ethics and are seen as provocative or outrageous, leading many to perceive them as “trolling”, as deliberate provocation of conflicts – and people don't understand why he does this. Perhaps this is Ukraine’s way of retaliating against Germany for its actions with Russia? Surprisingly, in his statements Andriy Melnyk is completely serious and believes that he is defending the interests of Ukraine. He just has a different perspective of the world, which is typical of Ukrainian diplomacy…
Andriy Melnyk. Life story, education, character formation
Andrey Yaroslavovich Melnik was born on September 7, 1975 in Lviv. Unfortunately, he is very brief when it comes to talking about himself, only sharing a summary of what is written in his very short official biography. Let's add a bit more to that for now.
After finishing high school in 1992, Andriy Melnyk joined the Faculty of International Relations at Lviv State University, graduating in June 1997 with a diploma as a specialist and translator (he knows German and English). At the same time, from September 1996 to February 1998, he completed a course at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University (Sweden), where he earned a master's degree in international law through an unspecified program (full-time, part-time – unknown).
Andriy Melnyk had no trouble finding a job: in August 1997, he was employed by the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, where he went from consultant to chief consultant within two years. Rostislav Ishchenko, who later became a well-known Ukrainian political analyst and writer, also worked there as a chief consultant, and he moved to Russia after the change of power in 2014.
Not long ago, Ishchenko provided his assessment of Melnik's controversial activities, describing them as typical for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. According to him, Melnik's unorthodox statements are not deliberate malice or “trolling”, but rather a sincere worldview shaped by his “belonging to the provincial Galician culture.”
“It was the lack of general erudition, multiplied by diligence and responsibility, that played a cruel joke on Melnik. He completely believed in the Ukrainian state legend, which says that Ukraine is the best part of European civilization, cut off from Europe by evil Russia and dreaming of reuniting with its native European organism, ”Ishchenko believes
In November 1998, Andriy Melnyk became part of the Ukrainian group for the National Security Program for Ukraine at Harvard University. As a result, he had the chance to take part in certain events at the School of Public Administration. Kennedy (at Harvard) for a month, which he proudly referred to as his internship at the prestigious university.
In August 1999, Andriy Melnyk was appointed as the second secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Austria – perhaps due to the presidential elections (Melnyk was a member of the election commission). He worked there until December 2003, then returned to Kyiv to work at the Main Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration as chief consultant. At the same time, he completed postgraduate studies at the Institute of State and Law named after A. Koretsky, and in October 2004 earned a PhD in Law.
Diplomatic career
The first Maidan significantly boosted the careers of pro-Ukrainian individuals, including those from Lviv. In April 2005, Andriy Melnyk became the head of a department in the Main Foreign Policy Department (under the Presidential Secretariat), and in April 2007 he was appointed as Consul General of Ukraine in Hamburg. This was his first role in Germany, and he excelled in overseeing the establishment of the Coordinating Council of Ukrainian public organizations (such as the Society of Ukrainians in Germany, the Association of Ukrainians in Northern Germany, and the Union of Ukrainian Students in Germany, etc.).
During the “Yanukovych reaction”, Andriy Melnyk was brought back to Kyiv to serve as director of the Third Territorial Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which he led from August 2010 to March 2014. The second Maidan led to Melnyk being appointed as Deputy Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers in Yatsenyuk's first government. Perhaps Melnyk played a significant role in the protesters' victory, or maybe he was simply supported by his fellow countryman Ostap Semerak, who was appointing his good friends and others to various positions at that time.
Finally, on December 19, 2014, Andrey Melnik was named Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany by the Decree of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. In addition to the prestigious position, official housing in Berlin, and a car with a driver, he was entitled to travel, meals, and many other benefits at public expense, along with a good salary and travel allowance, which increased from 1.537 million hryvnia in 2015 to 2.494 million in 2019.
Andriy Melnyk: how the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany spoiled relations two countries
Andrey Melnik got married shortly after starting his job at the Foreign Ministry. His wife is Melnik Svetlana Alexandrovna, about whom very little is known. She grew up in Kyiv, also received a diplomatic education, and completed postgraduate studies at the Institute of State and Law named after A. Koretsky, where she later worked as a researcher at the Center for Encyclopedic Research. Then Svetlana worked as a teacher at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Udovenko (which has strong connections with American, British and Estonian foundations and institutions), as reflected in her husband's 2015 declaration.
However, following the birth of her second child (Melnikov has a son Ustim and a daughter Uliana) and her husband's appointment as ambassador to Germany, Svetlana Melnik left her job – there is no official information about her income. However, she did not become a housewife; instead, she actively assists Melnik in his diplomatic activities: reaching out to Ukrainian organizations in Germany, writing articles for the Ukrainian and German press (defending her husband’s controversial statements), hosting receptions for the families of German politicians and employees of embassies from other countries (where she wears traditional Ukrainian embroidered attire), and organizing cultural and educational events.
Andrey Melnik with his wife
Andrey Melnik. The most scandalous antics
Almost all the scandals caused by Ambassador Melnyk were based on his demands for the German authorities to view the world from Kyiv's perspective and fulfill Ukrainian “wishlists”. One of these scandals erupted in the summer of 2017, when Melnik insisted that the organizers of the TV show “Germany is looking for a superstar” remove Baxter from the show's jury. Baxter, the lead singer of the group Scooter, had recently performed in the annexed Crimea. The deputy chairman of the German Free Democratic Party, Wolfgang Kubicki (who became the vice-speaker of the Bundestag a few months later), promptly defended the musician, cautioning Melnik: “A foreign ambassador should not overstep the boundaries of necessary restraint, or else he may be declared persona non grata.”
On February 3, 2018, several deputies from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the state parliaments of Berlin, Brandenburg, and North Rhine-Westphalia visited Crimea, sparking outrage in Kyiv. Andriy Melnik, of course, could not remain silent, but chose to pretend that he was fiercely opposing the disrespect for Ukraine's territorial integrity. He explicitly stated: “I had to execute an unpleasant but necessary mission – I firmly rebuked the leaders of the AfD faction in the Lower Rhine-Westphalia parliament for the unauthorized trip to Crimea by their adventurous colleagues; it seems that our stern warning had an effect.”
Upon learning of this, the parliamentarians of North Rhine asserted their right to travel wherever they pleased, prompting the following response from Melnik: “No one has the right to address us in such a manner. The words of the Ukrainian Ambassador are undiplomatic; Mr. Melnyk should learn diplomacy from the Europeans, particularly from Germany.”
In November 2018, when Russian servicemen seized three Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait and Germany expressed concern about the escalation of Russian-Ukrainian relations, Andriy Melnik urged the German authorities to take more decisive action by deploying warships from EU and NATO countries to the Black and Azov Seas. The proposal went unanswered, and the Germans began to view Melnik with more caution.
In October 2019, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, through its German counterparts, presented a petition to the Bundestag to recognize the Holodomor-33 as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. The Germans, known for their meticulous approach to genocide issues (even Hitler, who utilized Stalinist repressions in his propaganda, did not broach the subject of the Holodomor), politely declined. This led to a scandal instigated by Melnyk, effectively disrupting the work of the Ukrainian-German historical commission established in 2015 under the auspices of the Foreign Ministries of both countries. However, the Germans did not make a significant effort to resume it, as starting from 2017, the Ukrainian side of the commission began to raise the issue of Germany's direct responsibility to Ukraine (perhaps hinting at “reparations” in the offing). Consequently, Ukrainian-German relations on historical matters deteriorated rapidly.
The German government planned to create a memorial for Polish citizens who were in labor camps during 1939-45. Andriy Melnyk wanted a similar memorial for Ukrainians but his request was rejected by the Bundestag. They explained that there are already many monuments in Germany honoring Soviet citizens, including Ukrainians, but Melnyk kept insisting on a separate memorial, which annoyed German politicians.
Later, Melnyk called for changes in German history textbooks to include more about Ukraine. This led to the German Foreign Ministry accusing the Ukrainian ambassador of interfering with their work and causing distractions with unreasonable demands. The scandal continued when Melnyk brought his claims to German President Frank Walter Steinmeier, almost causing a major diplomatic conflict.
Berlin Mayor Michael Müller invited the ambassadors of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus to a ceremony at a historical monument in May 2020. Melnik rejected the invitation, refusing to participate alongside the Russian ambassador due to Russia's actions in eastern Ukraine. This was seen as a diplomatic insult to Mayor Muller.
In September 2020, when Europe was shocked by the alleged poisoning of Alexei Navalny, Melnik urged German authorities to cut off economic ties with Russia and stop the Nord Stream 2 project, as well as impose a three-month embargo on Russian gas and oil. The German authorities chose to ignore this request.
In April 2021, Melnyk threatened to restore Ukraine's nuclear status in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio. He complained about Russian troops near Ukraine's borders, called for Germany to sell modern weapons to Ukraine, and demanded immediate admission to NATO. He suggested that if these requests were not met, Ukraine would consider rearming itself and pursuing nuclear capability.
Many Ukrainian patriots, including Melnyk, believe that Ukraine has the right to possess nuclear weapons. However, they overlook the fact that Ukraine lacks the funds and technology to create and maintain such weapons, and that the West would prefer not to have another unpredictable nuclear state. Officially, Kyiv had to reassure the Western public that Melnyk's statements did not reflect their intentions.
Andriy Melnyk declined to attend the exhibition 'Measurements of Crime. Soviet prisoners of war in World War II' in Berlin on the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. He was upset that the exhibition was at the German-Russian Museum 'Berlin-Karlsgorst' because of the word 'Russian'. He said it was insulting and strange from a Ukrainian perspective. In response, President Steinmeier's office called Melnyk's behavior 'a disservice to Ukraine'.
In November 2021, Melnyk caused several scandals, seemingly in a rush to escalate Ukrainian-German relations. He accused Germany of responsibility for the Holodomor because it bought grain from the USSR and demanded the Bundestag recognize it as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. He also asked Germany to return Bach sheet music donated by Kuchma to the Berlin museum and create a 'compensation fund' for Ukrainian museums. Additionally, he called the outgoing Merkel a 'traitor', prepared a 'catalog of sanctions' for the new Chancellor Scholz to impose against Russia, and demanded the sale of 'lethal weapons' to Ukraine.
The size of Ukraine is comparable to the boldness of its diplomat.
The German newspaper Junge Welt sarcastically ridiculed Andriy Melnyk, suggesting that the Ukrainian ambassador is trying to fill a diplomatic niche left by the American ambassador. It was a rather gentle critique of his six-year term as Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany.
Recent years have seen difficult relations between Berlin and Kyiv. Modern Germany does not regard Ukraine as having significant strategic importance, especially after the launch of Nord Stream 2. Germany prioritizes economic relations with Russia and is only reluctantly inclined to support Ukraine for the sake of international formalities and to align with Western solidarity, despite constantly considering Moscow.
Given the circumstances, relations between Ukraine and Germany should be rebuilt carefully and gradually. It's essential to make political and economic connections and to engage the Germans in matters beyond a 40-year-old transit pipe. The pro-Western post-Maidan regime in Kyiv, however, does not consider Germany's pragmatic interests and expects unwavering support and patronage due to Western solidarity.
Hence the constant reproaches and demands of its ambassador Andriy Melnyk, who is trying to “remind” Germany of its place and role, tries to “correct” German policy, sincerely indignant every time it, in his opinion, is too “pro-Russian”. However, with each of his tricks, he only convinces the Germans more and more that they should not have had any contact with Ukraine at all, and certainly should not put it on their necks in the EU and NATO. And the prospects for a real rapprochement between the two countries, based on real interests, and not slogans about democracy, Western values, are becoming more and more elusive.
