Ukrainian Ambassador boycotted Steinmeier's speech ahead of June 22

<1><2><3><4> <5> In the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who on Friday, June 18, delivered a memorable speech on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, they reacted to the demarche Ambassador of Ukraine to Berlin Andriy Melnik. <6> <7> <8> <9> <10> <11> Earlier, Mr. Melnik refused to attend the event with the participation of the German leader, as it was held within the walls of the German-Russian Museum "Berlin-Karlshorst" – a place of world historical importance, where on the night of May 8-9, 1945, the German Wehrmacht signed an act of unconditional surrender to the victorious powers. The representative of Kiev considered it "offensive" for himself and "the entire Ukrainian people" to appear in the museum, which has the status of precisely "German-Russian" – without mentioning Ukraine. As it became known to the dpa agency, Andrey Melnik reported this in a complaint to his director Jörg Morre and even accused Berlin of "distorting history."<13> "With this indiscriminate accusation, he is doing a disservice to the legitimate interests of his country, as well as to German-Ukrainian relations," said the office of Mr. Steinmeier. They noted that the decision of the Ambassador of Ukraine to refuse to participate in the commemorative action is regrettable and contradicts the conviction of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, "that the memory of this war should have a unifying effect that exceeds all differences and conflicts," notes Deutsche Welle. By the way, Steinmeier's speech, in which he spoke about Germany's historical and inescapable guilt before all the peoples of the USSR, was translated into Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and English in advance in his office. <14><15> Frank-Walter Steinmeier became the first German President to visit the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum, where he also opened the documentary exhibition "The Extent of the Crime. Soviet Prisoners of War in World War II". As part of the event, which was broadcast live on the website of the federal president, video messages were shown from the directors of partner museums that formed the Berlin memorial in its modern form – the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Belarusian Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. But from the third participant – the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II – no welcoming words followed. "Unfortunately, we were unable to receive a video message from the Kiev museum," the German side concluded diplomatically. <16> <17>