Israeli and Polish outrage at Ukraine’s Berlin representative’s statements on WWII nationalist

•  Ukraine to Germany, a regular on talk shows who played a key role in the public discussions
• The most well-known ambassador in Berlin is undoubtedly Andriy Melnyk, who gained notoriety for his fiery social media 
• The Israeli embassy and the Polish government both criticised Tilo Jung 

The outspoken ambassador of Ukraine to Germany, a regular on talk shows who played a key role in the public discussions that prompted Berlin to increase arms shipments to Kyiv, is coming under fire for defending World War Two Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera in a recent interview.

The most well-known ambassador in Berlin is undoubtedly Andriy Melnyk, who gained notoriety for his fiery social media discussions in which he denounced as appeasers intellectuals and politicians who advocated arming Ukraine to defend itself against Russian invaders.

The Israeli embassy and the Polish government both criticised Tilo Jung after he claimed in an interview published on Thursday that Bandera was not a “mass murderer of Poles and Jews.” The statement created uproar.

The embassy claimed on Twitter that the Ukrainian ambassador’s remarks “distort historical truths, denigrate the Holocaust, and are an insult to those who are slain by Bandera and his people.”

Bandera led the extremist division of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, which during World War Two slaughtered tens of thousands of Polish people, while spending a large portion of the conflict in a Nazi jail.

He was the leader of Ukraine’s anti-Soviet rebellion, which fought Moscow in partisan acts throughout the 1950s, and lived in exile in Munich after the war. In 1959, the Soviet KGB killed him.

Even the Ukrainian foreign ministry disavowed Melnyk’s comments, claiming they did not represent its viewpoints. Zbigniew Rau, the foreign minister of Poland, praised his counterpart in Ukraine for intervening against the “false comments.”

Melnyk, 46, has emerged as a key player in discussions about Germany’s responsibilities to Ukraine. He is credited with using his platform as the representative of a country defending itself from foreign invasion to keep pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who despite initial reluctance has continued to increase arms deliveries to Ukraine.

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