July 21, (THEWILL) – Ukrane’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Friday, sacked the country’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Vadym Prystaiko.
Prystaiko is a career diplomat, who has served as ambassador to the United Kingdom since July 2020. He was previously Ukraine’s foreign minister from 2019 to 2020.
Although President Zelensky, in a statement published on the presidential website, did not provide any reason for sacking Prystaiko, reports say the development may not be unconnected to his open criticism of the president’s response to a row over British military aid.
The UK is a major donor of weapons to Ukraine and also trains its troops.
Prystaiko had criticised Zelensky’s sarcastic response to suggestions from British defence minister Ben Wallace that Ukraine should show more gratitude for arms supplies from its allies.
The row began when Wallace told journalists at a NATO summit in Vilnius this month that Britain was not an Amazon delivery service for weapons to Ukraine and suggested Kyiv could express more “gratitude”.
Zelensky responded at a press conference at the summit, saying he did not know how else to make clear Ukraine’s gratitude, adding: “We could wake up in the morning and express our words of gratitude to the minister personally.”
The Ukrainian diplomat agreed with a suggestion from a Sky News interviewer that Zelensky responded with “a little bit of sarcasm” to Wallace.
“I don’t believe that 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. If anything happens, Ben can call me and tell me everything he wants”, Prystaiko added, stressing the need to smooth over relations with the UK.
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