But in Melnyk’s view the end always justified the means. “I think I’ve woken people up,” he told the Financial Times. “And I’m glad I did that, even though sometimes I had to do it in a somewhat undiplomatic way.” Ask German officials what they think of Melnik, who was recalled to Kyiv after serving seven years as ambassador, and the most common response is “Nervensäge” – or “nervous saw” – German for a royal pain in the neck. It’s a reference to his near-constant sniping at the German government over its policies in Ukraine – a campaign he led with complete disregard for diplomatic qualities. Melnyk’s interventions — on Twitter, on talk shows and through countless radio and print interviews — went off like firecrackers in a packed room, causing panic, confusion and, occasionally, awe. He defends the shock jock style. “You have to wake people up from their sweet slumber, from their slumber — where they’re just saying, ‘It’s all fine and dandy, so what does this man want from us? Why is he challenging us?’ he said. An expert in international and human rights law and a fluent German speaker who first joined Ukraine’s diplomatic service in 1997, Melnyk was unknown to the wider public until Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Then, suddenly, it was everywhere. In a series of television and social media appearances, he begged Germany’s leaders to help his country, skewered them for their reluctance to procure heavy weapons and mercilessly berated them for their past naivety in trusting the Russian president Vladimir Putin. Along the way he became, in the words of Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the head of the Bundestag’s defense committee, “more politician than diplomat — noisy, awkward and highly questionable.” He crossed many lines, he said, but that was understandable. “He was a vocal fighter for a country going through a terrible war,” he said. That’s why most politicians in Germany were prepared to overlook his occasional missteps, such as the time he told former left-wing MP Fabio De Masi to “shut up your left-wing son-in-law” and called out an academic who had advocated demilitarizing Ukraine . “real no**”. His optimism peaked in May after German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was told he would not be welcome in Kyiv and Olaf Scholz said he would not visit Ukraine over the insult. Melnyk then accused the chancellor of behaving like an “afflicted liver sausage” (German for prima donna). He later apologized for the remark.

But in June he went too far for some of his most ardent fans. In an interview he was asked about his stance on Stepan Bandera, the radical Ukrainian nationalist leader whose followers took part in massacres of Jews and Poles during World War II. Melnyk appeared to question the historical record and refused to distance himself from Bandera. Poland and Israel were outraged and said so. Looking back, he recognized that he was wrong. “I’m sorry that my words could have hurt some people – that was not my intention,” he said. Honored by some Ukrainians as a freedom fighter against the Soviet Union and decried by others as an anti-Semite and fascist, Bandera was a subject for “historians, not diplomats” — what was needed was a “sober, factual” assessment of his role . Although the gaffe tarnished his reputation, Melnyk is proud of his achievements as ambassador — such as ensuring that the issue of arms deliveries to Ukraine “was always at the forefront of the public dialogue” and “high on the political agenda.” But his legacy remains controversial. Many in the German government agreed with his view that Berlin should do more to support Ukraine. “But he did himself no favors in the way he presented that argument,” one official said. “It ended up alienating a lot of people and making things uncomfortable for Ukraine’s true friends in Germany.” Meanwhile, Melnyk leaves behind a lot of unfinished business. There are, he said, “still too many remnants of the old policy,” too many German politicians who want to revive the “special relationship” with the Kremlin, who hope that “we can continue to receive gas from Russia because that is the basis [Germany’s] financial success”. “They just have to let go of those fantasies,” he said. It will now be up to his successor to “keep the pressure on the Germans” and make sure “they don’t sway us”. Melnyk was recalled to Kyiv shortly after the flag was dropped and his future fate is unclear. His friends say he has been offered the post of deputy foreign minister but is reluctant to take it. He knows he’ll probably never shake off his reputation as a nervous saw. But there was no alternative, he said, but to speak. “I could really keep quiet. . . even when I saw how badly things were going and how blind the Germans were?’ he said. “What choice did I have?”