Ukrainian President Volodyrmyr Zelenskyy seen on March 10, 2022.
Office of the President of Ukraine
- The Ukrainian President has announced that he has fired five of his country’s ambassadors.
- Envoys have been largely tasked with drumming up international support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
- It is not clear if the diplomats will be given new roles.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired five of Ukraine’s senior envoys abroad, citing the “diplomatic process.”
The Ukrainian president released a number of statements announcing that he had fired his country’s ambassadors to Germany, India, the Czech Republic, Norway, and Hungary.
No reason was given for these changes, but he said, “This rotation is a normal part of diplomatic practice,” he said in a statement, according to Reuters, and gave no further details.
It is not clear if the diplomats will be given new roles.
Envoys have been tasked with rallying international support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia, particularly by supplying the country with arms to fight Putin’s invasion.
Andriy Melnyk, the now-former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, previously called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz an “offended liver sausage” when he rejected an invitation to visit Ukraine, according to Reuters.
Zelenskyy has been outspoken when countries do not provide aid in a way he sees fit. When the Ukrainian president addressed the German Parliament in March, he condemned them for doing “obviously not enough to stop this war,” and noting “how many ties your companies still have with Russia.”
French President Macron also faced fierce criticism over comments that Vladimir Putin should not be humiliated in Ukraine, which Kyiv has interpreted as a call for it to make concessions to Moscow.
But this week, Zelenskyy thanked the West for its weapon supplies to the Ukrainian fight against Russia, after US-supplied rocket systems destroyed Russian artillery munitions depots.
