Overview
- Ukrainian Ambassador Oleksii Makeiev publicly criticized AfD deputies for attending the Kremlin‑backed St. Petersburg economic forum and for posing smiling at receptions at the Russian embassy, calling those actions a taking of the aggressor's side and an attempt to relativize Russia’s war.
- Makeiev told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland that he keeps no contacts with what he described as undemocratic parties and that he finds AfD representatives’ embassy photo‑ops unacceptable given documented Russian wartime crimes.
- The rebuke comes as the AfD tops recent national polls, a development Makeiev said worries him because party visits to Moscow and pro‑Russia statements could shift German public debate on support for Ukraine.
- Makeiev used the interview to press Ukraine’s case for accelerated EU membership, saying the country has carried out wide wartime reforms and calling for corruption allegations to be investigated by independent institutions up to the highest levels.
- Reporting tones varied across outlets but agreed on the facts: the St. Petersburg forum is Kremlin‑hosted, several AfD politicians there urged renewed Germany‑Russia ties, and German security officials have raised concerns about the political and intelligence risks of such contacts.