Zelensky makes reshuffles in diplomatic corps, including appointment of Melnik, who earlier called Scholz 'liverwurst', as Ukraine's envoy to UN

MOSCOW. April 8 (Interfax) - Vladimir Zelensky has discharged Andrei Melnik of his duties as Ukraine's ambassador to Brazil and appointed him the country's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ukrainian media reported with reference to the presidential website.

Before his appointment as ambassador to Brazil, Melnik had served as deputy foreign minister up to 2023. From 2014 to 2022, Melnik served as Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, during which he gained notoriety for calling former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz liverwurst for what he saw as inadequate support to Kiev.

Zelensky also signed a decree appointing former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andrei Kostin ambassador to the Netherlands and Ukraine's representative at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Kostin was previously a member of the 9th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada and head of its Legal Policy Committee. He served as prosecutor general from July 2022 to October 2024. He resigned amid a scandal surrounding the Khmelnitsky regional prosecutor's office, where 49 prosecutors were caught receiving millions in allowances from the state budget for fake disability status.

Zelensky appointed Alexander Nechitailo Ukraine's ambassador to China. Nechitailo previously served as ambassador to Malaysia, the Philippines, and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor) before May 2022.

Nechitailo served as acting director of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's Department for the Asia-Pacific from February to June 2016. He also worked as a counselor at the Ukrainian embassy to Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, second secretary at the Ukrainian embassy to China in Beijing, and second secretary at the Ukrainian embassy to Indonesia in Jakarta. He graduated from the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kiev with a degree in philology (a teacher of the Ukrainian language and literature and the Chinese language and literature).

Zelensky appointed Roman Goryainov ambassador to Lebanon, Mikhail Vydoinik ambassador to Finland, Yury Klimenko ambassador to Paraguay, and Alexei Gavrish ambassador to Norway.

He discharged Olga Dibrova from her duties as Ukraine's ambassador to Finland and Iceland.

Vydoinik previously served as ambassador to Denmark from July 25, 2018 to October 27, 2023.

Goryainov had been Ukraine's consul general in Milan since 2016.

Klimenko served as Ukraine's permanent envoy to the UN office and offices of other international organizations at Geneva from October 11, 2013 to April 6, 2021 and then as ambassador to Argentina from December 26, 2022. Starting February 7, 2025, he also combined this job with duties as ambassador to Uruguay.

Gavrish is a former businessman, public figure, and academic.