Amid its ongoing war with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday dismissed Kyiv’s ambassadors to five nations including India. The other nations are Germany, Czech Republic, Norway and Hungary. The Ukrainian Ambassador to India is Igor Polikha. A Reuters report, based on information on the Presidential website, stated that it was not immediately clear if the envoys would be handed new jobs.
The agency said Zelenskyy gave no reason for the move to the sack Ukraine’s ambassadors to the five countries. Zelenskyy has urged his diplomats to drum up international support and military aid for Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russia’s invasion that started on February 24 this year.
Kyiv’s relation with Germany, which is heavily reliant on Russian energy supplies and is also Europe’s biggest economy, has been a particularly sensitive matter.
The two capitals are currently at odds over a German-made turbine undergoing maintenance in Canada. Germany wants Ottawa to return the turbine to Russian natural gas giant Gazprom to pump gas to Europe. Kyiv has urged Canada to keep the turbine, saying that shipping it to Russia would be a violation of sanctions imposed on Moscow, the Reuters report maintained.