Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired his ambassador to the United Kingdom on Friday, after the ambassador criticized the president’s recent “sarcasm” in response to British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace suggesting Kyiv should be more grateful for Western support.
Zelensky said in a presidential decree Friday that Vadym Prystaiko had been dismissed but did not provide a reason.
Wallace told reporters at the annual NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, last week that Ukraine should not treat its western partners like “Amazon,” the popular online retailer.
“I told them that last June. I said to the Ukrainians, when I drove 11 hours to be given a list: ‘I’m not Amazon,’” Wallace said, adding, “Whether we like it or not, people want to see gratitude.”
Zelensky responded to Wallace, saying that his country has “always been very grateful to the United Kingdom.”
“I just don’t know what he means,” Zelensky added, according to CNN. “How else should we thank him? Well, let him write to me and tell me how I need to thank people so that we can be fully grateful. We can also wake up in the morning and thank the minister personally.”
Prystaiko this week suggested that Zelensky was overly sarcastic in his response to Wallace, and risked exposing cracks that could help Moscow.
“I don’t believe that this sarcasm is healthy,” Prystaiko said in an interview with Sky News. “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 anything he wants.”