After Elon Musk came up with his take on how peace can be forged between Russia and Ukraine, Andrij Melnyk, a Russian diplomat, asked him to “F**ck off”. Musk said in a tweet that Ukraine should remain neutral in the war which irked the Ukrainian diplomat.

Musk said that an UN-supervised election in the regions annexed by Russia should be conducted, and Russia should respect the verdict of the people, even if it means leaving the regions.

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Ukrainian state officials were especially irked with two of his other suggestions. Musk said that Crimea should remain a part of Russia formally, “as it had been since 1783”, and Ukraine should remain neutral in the ongoing war. Replying to him, Melnyk said, “Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you.”

Who is Andrij Melnyk?

Andriy Yaroslavovych Melnyk was born on September 7, 1975, in Lviv, Ukraine (formerly USSR). He graduated from the Ivan Franko Lviv State University with specialisation in international relations and also obtained a German translator’s qualification.

He joined the Foreign Policy Department in 1997 and was sent to the Austrian embassy in 1999 where he worked till 2003. His first posting in Germany was in 2007 when he became the Consul of Ukraine in Hamburg. He worked in that role for five years, till 2012, when he stepped down and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

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In 2015, when Ukraine’s president was Petro Poroshenko, Melnyk was sworn into office as Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany. He is still serving in the role, as of September 2022. 

While in Germany, Melynk has organised the Ukrainians residing there into different bodies. Some of the organisations he helped build are, the Union of Ukrainian Students of Germany, the Association of Ukrainians of Northern Germany and the Society of Ukrainians of Germany.