Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystayko has been dismissed. The corresponding decree has been published on the website of the Ukrainian president.
The document says that Prystayko has also been stripped of the post of Ukraine’s permanent representative to the International Maritime Organization, which he held part-time.
Earlier, Prystayko criticized Zelenskyy’s words of gratitude to British Defence Minister Ben Wallace.
At the NATO summit in Vilnius last week, Wallace urged Ukraine to be more active in thanking its partners for their military support instead of constantly making new demands. Wallace recalled that last year, when he took 11 hours to arrive in Kiev and was immediately given a list of needed weapons, he said: “You know, we’re not Amazon”.
Commenting on these words of the British minister at a press conference after the summit, Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine has always been very grateful for help, including from the UK. According to Zelensky, he simply does not know how else to thank. “I just don’t know how else we should thank. We can wake up in the morning and thank the Minister. Let him write me how to thank, and I will thank like that”, said the President of Ukraine.
The next day, Ukrainian Ambassador Prystayko, speaking on Sky News, called Zelensky’s words “unhealthy sarcasm”. The diplomat added that Ukraine should not show Russia that there might be some misunderstandings between it and its Western partners.
Wallace later claimed that his words about Ukraine’s lack of gratitude had been “partially distorted”.
