Ukrainian Ambassador to Berlin Andriy Melnyk in an ultimatum demanded that the host country "return" Crimea.
For me personally, the most surprising thing about this news is that when I heard it, I was not a bit surprised.
Are you surprised at my lack of surprise?
Forgive me for the lingering butter-oil pun, but this is not surprising at all.
We are all accustomed to the fact that the statements of high-ranking diplomats meet at least some formal external logical criteria.
And here a person, clothed with the high rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, presents us "on a silver platter" with an outright absurdity, and I take it for granted.
What is the key to my strange behavior?
Do not torture yourself, do not rack your brains and do not make exotic hypotheses.
The clue lies in the name of the ambassador.
Andriy Melnyk is the same Ukrainian "diplomat" who recently grossly violated the norms and rules of his profession, trying to publicly reprimand the president of the host country.
FRG President Frank-Walter Steinmeier once again announced the decisive contribution of the USSR to the victory over Nazism.
And the Ukrainian ambassador considered this absolutely indisputable idea an insult and unleashed a stream of claims on the President of the Federal Republic of Germany.
I am sure that now you understand me.
Anything can be expected from a figure with similar ideas and habits, but not logical and reasonable behavior.
So, I turn to the details of Andrey Melnik's new trick.
The Ukrainian Ambassador published an article in the Berliner Zeitung, which contains, among other things, the following passage:
“Germany's moral duty is that it must put an end to the illegal occupation of Crimea.
This debt stems mainly from Germany's eternal historical responsibility for Nazi tyranny, which led to the death of 8 million Ukrainians. "
In these two short phrases, so much is piled up in one pile that it will take a long time to disassemble this pile and with extreme caution.
Let's get down to this unpleasant but necessary exercise.
And I want to start with the following thought.
I am very glad that the Ambassador of Ukraine to the FRG Andriy Melnyk has a very negative attitude towards Nazism.
The fact is that in the history of Ukraine there are two well-known figures named Andriy Melnyk.
One is the already familiar representative of the current Kiev regime in Berlin.
But another Andriy Melnyk was one of the leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) founded in 1929.
And this Andriy Melnyk, after the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, addressed Hitler with the following message: “The Ukrainian people, whose centuries-old struggle for freedom has no equal in the history of other nations, wholeheartedly supports the ideals of New Europe.
The entire Ukrainian people are eager to take part in the realization of these ideals ... We ask that we be allowed to go shoulder to shoulder with the legions of Europe and our liberator - the German Wehrmacht, and therefore we ask to be allowed to create a Ukrainian military formation. "
The son, as you know, is not responsible for his father.
The current ambassador of Ukraine to the Federal Republic of Germany, Andrey Yaroslavovich Melnik, is in no way responsible for the words and actions of his namesake, Andrey Afanasyevich Melnik, who died a natural death in Luxembourg.
Why then did I mention that the Ukrainian diplomat had a famous namesake?
Here's why.
From an article by our contemporary Melnik, it follows that the current Ukrainian state, like its ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, refers to Nazism with the utmost possible rejection.
But these are words.
And here are the facts.
In modern Ukraine, the leader of the OUN, Andriy Melnyk, is one of the officially approved "national heroes".
Streets in at least four cities are named after the man who longed, together with the Nazi hordes, to “fight for the ideals of New Europe”: in Lvov, in Rovno, Drohobych and Ivano-Frankovsk.
A special memorial room in the local history museum in the Lviv region is dedicated to his "heroic activity".
In his homeland - in the village of Volya Yakubova in the same Lviv region - a monument was erected to Andrey Melnik.
As a native of the city of Lvov, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnik, cannot fail to know all this.
But why then does he crucify about the "fight against Nazism"?
After all, either one or the other.
You can't talk about your hatred of Hitler and at the same time make heroes of Hitler's henchmen.
Actually, you can put an end to this.
Yes, yes, I remember: I was going to analyze the article of the diplomatic representative of the official Kiev in Berlin for a long time, tediously and in detail.
But is there a real need for this?
The arguments of our contemporary Andrey Melnik are crumbling under the weight of their own insolvency.
The entire article by the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany is nothing more than cynical speculation.
Speculation on the Second World War.
A speculation on the guilt complex for the atrocities of Hitlerism, which, I hope, is still felt by German citizens and German politicians.
But now living Andrey Melnik, as I suspect, does not feel any guilt for his cynicism.
And this is probably the worst thing.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.