The dispute arose because Kyiv refused to accept German President Steinmeier, after which Chancellor Scholz refused to come to the Ukrainian capital< source srcset="https://s0.rbk.ru/v6_top_pics/resized/800xH/media/img/4/91/756594609480914.webp 800w" type="image/webp" media="(max-width: 400px) and (min-resolution: 192dpi)" >
Andriy Melnyk
Fired in July, Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk, before leaving, asked for a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to apologize to him for the insult: in May, the diplomat called the politician an “offended liverwurst.” Melnik told the German newspaper Bild about this.
“If the Chancellor had received me before leaving, I would have apologized to him,” — he said, saying that he had requested a conversation with Scholz from his office and hoped that the conversation would take place.
“Pretend to be an insulted liver sausage” not very state-of-the-art,— So in early May, Melnik commented on Scholz's refusal to visit Kyiv due to the fact that the Ukrainian authorities did not receive German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Kyiv. Scholz then did not attach any importance to this statement. Later, the chancellor did visit Kyiv with his European colleagues, but Steinmeier has not yet arrived in Ukraine.
In June, Melnyk already indicated that he regretted his statement to the chancellor. Then he called his comment “diplomatically inappropriate”; and “offending many people not only in Germany” and promised to personally apologize to Scholz.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July signed a decree dismissing Melnyk. Bild, which announced his possible resignation a few days before the publication of the document, citing sources, indicated that the initiative came from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and that Melnyk could take the position of its deputy head.
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