President Zelensky fires Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK after he criticized his sarcastic response to Ben Wallace’s suggestion that kyiv should show more arms gratitude.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky fired the country’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Vadym Prystaiko, on Friday after he criticized the president’s response to a dispute over British military aid.
Prystaiko had criticized Zelensky’s sarcastic response to suggestions by British defense minister Ben Wallace that Ukraine should show more gratitude for its allies’ arms supplies.
Zelensky signed a decree of removal of Prystaiko, published on the presidential website. He did not provide a reason.
The dispute began when Wallace told reporters at a NATO summit in Vilnius this month that Britain was not an Amazon arms delivery service to Ukraine and suggested that Kiev could express more “gratitude.”
The UK is a major arms donor to Ukraine and also trains its troops.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky fired the country’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Vadym Prystaiko, on Friday after he criticized the president’s response to a dispute over British military aid.
Zelensky fired the country’s ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko (pictured), on Friday after he criticized the president’s response to a dispute over British military aid.
Zelensky responded at a summit news conference, saying he did not know how else to make Ukraine’s gratitude clear, adding: “We could wake up in the morning and express our words of gratitude to the minister personally.”
The Ukrainian diplomat agreed with a Sky News interviewer’s suggestion that Zelensky responded with “a bit of sarcasm” to Wallace.
‘I don’t think this sarcasm is healthy. We don’t have to show the Russians that we have something between us, they have to know that we are working together,” Prystaiko added, stressing the need to smooth relations with the UK.
“If something happens, Ben can call me and tell me whatever he wants,” said the diplomat.
Prystaiko is a career diplomat who has served as Ambassador to the UK since July 2020. He was previously Ukraine’s Foreign Minister from 2019 to 2020.
Meanwhile, Wallace has sought to clarify his warning to Ukraine not to treat NATO as ‘Amazon’ for weapons and complained that his controversial comments had been ‘misconstrued’.
Instead, he insisted that he was simply offering Zelensky advice that, in order to maintain popular support in the West, the relationship had to be a ‘partnership’ rather than a ‘transactional’ one.
This is breaking news, more to follow…
