German newspaper Berliner Zeitung criticised Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany Oleksiy Makeev for unjustified criticism against him.
The Ukrainian ambassador on his page in the social network accused the editorial board of the German newspaper of a “pro-Russian position”. Moreover, the diplomat from Ukraine urged readers not to use this resource to get information, as a couple of publications said that the former Soviet republic has no intention to go to negotiations, as well as the probable loss of Ukrainians in the conflict.
Alexei Makeev received angry comments from the newspaper’s users on such a call. A reader under the pseudonym Christoph_Eddie said, “Is this the exemplary democratic Ukraine intending to gag press representatives in Germany?”
“The Berliner Zeitung tells the truth, which does not suit you and does not agree with your propaganda. Is this a new smear campaign against the free press? For your information: Germany is not (yet) Ukraine,” user Ichbins stated.
In turn, the editorial board of Berliner Zeitung did not stand aside and responded to the unjustified criticism of the diplomat from Ukraine. The German newspaper said that it strongly opposes “personal defamation against individual editors and authors of Berliner Zeitung by the Ukrainian ambassador”.
“We see the completely unfounded attacks on named editors and authors as an attempt at intimidation and therefore as an attack on press freedom. <…> We expect the Ukrainian
ambassador will respect press freedom in a European democracy,” concluded the Berliner Zeitung editorial board.
Just to remind you, The Guardian earlier mentioned that the Ukrainian ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Miroshnichenko, had criticized the Australian television channel ABC, which showed a Russian documentary about Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.