Diplomatic relations Ukraine: Melnyk’s mild successor

Foreign policy expert Oleksiy Makeyev is Ukraine’s new ambassador to Berlin. Previously, he was Special Representative for Sanctions Policy.

Oleksiy Makeyev was already campaigning for more sanctions against Russia in 2020 Photo: Thomas Trutschel/photothek/imago

BERLIN taz | Shortly before taking office on Monday, Ukraine’s new ambassador, Oleksiy Makeyev, was full of praise for Germany: “The German population supports Ukraine so strongly that I am certain that we will win the war together with all our other European partners . The faster the better!” he told a reporter on Sunday morning picture in Kyiv before he drove to Berlin.

Makejev succeeds Andrij Melnyk, who, with his undiplomatic statements since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, has offended the public, but also some German politicians, permanently upset would have. Makeyev is considered a specialist in questions of international security and foreign policy. After graduating in International Relations from Kyiv Taras Shevchenko University – he entered the diplomatic service in 1996.

Professional stations have taken him to Switzerland and Germany, among other places. In the revolutionary year 2014, when the Ukrainians demonstrated for weeks in Kyiv (“Euro-Maidan”) and finally overthrew the then President Viktor Yanukovych and his government from office, he was appointed political director of the Foreign Ministry. He remained in this post for six years.

In 2020, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba appointed Makeyev as Special Envoy for Sanctions Policy. In a post for the Ukrainian news portal Zerkalo nedeli September 11, 2020, Makeyev strongly advocated expanding Western sanctions against Russia.

This included punitive measures against Russian individuals responsible for human rights abuses and a final abandonment of the Nored Stream 2 project. At the same time, he announced the creation of a register modeled on the “Magnitsky Act”. US President Barak Obama signed it in December 2012 to target Russian officials implicated in the 2009 death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. In September, Makeev spoke out in favor of stopping issuing tourist visas to Russians.

Speaks six languages

His wife and entrepreneur Olena will accompany Makejev to Germany. Their daughter Anastasia is studying in Strasbourg. Last month, the outgoing Ambassador Melnyk still had Makayev in a Mirror-interview said: “Perhaps my successor would like to be nicer and more likeable, act more calmly […]. But at the end of the day, my successor will have no choice but to defend our interests with a strong and clear voice.”

That shouldn’t be a problem. In addition to Ukrainian and Russian, Makejev speaks four other languages, including German, of course. It is not known whether the term “offended liver sausage” was also part of his vocabulary, which Andrij Melnyk used to describe Chancellor Olaf Scholz.