The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, addresses the opening ceremony of the 26th round table of The Economist magazine, from Kyiv. July 5, 2022. HANDOUT / AFP / Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday fired Kyiv’s ambassador to Germany, as well as several other top foreign envoys, the presidential website said.
In a decree that gave no reason for the move, he announced the dismissal of the ambassadors of Ukraine to Germany, India, the Czech Republic, Norway and Hungary.
It was not immediately clear whether the envoys would have new jobs.
Zelensky has urged his diplomats to gather international support and military aid for Ukraine as he tries to prevent the invasion of Russia on February 24th.
Kyiv’s relations with Germany, which depends heavily on Russian energy supply and also on Europe’s largest economy, have been a particularly sensitive issue.
Currently, both capitals disagree with a German-made turbine under maintenance in Canada. Germany wants Ottawa to return the turbine to Russian natural gas giant Gazprom to pump gas to Europe.
Kyiv has urged Canada to keep the turbine, saying sending it to Russia would be a violation of sanctions imposed on Moscow.