Oleksiy Goncharenko, a lawmaker of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction in parliament, vandalized a monument to the collapse of the Berlin Wall – made from a section of the wall – which stands outside the German Embassy in Kyiv.
Goncharenko said he acted out of outrage over the suggestion German Ambassador to Ukraine Ernst Reichel made that the elections in the Ukrainian eastern region of Donbas could be held even in the presence of Russian troops.
Early in the morning on Feb. 8, Goncharenko came to the German Embassy in Kyiv with a can of red spray paint and daubed the word “nein” (“no” in German) on the fragment of the wall.
“I devoted my symbolic protest to the yesterday’s pro-Kremlin statements by German Ambassador to Ukraine Ernst Reichel,” the member of parliament wrote on his Facebook page on Feb. 8. “The German ambassador to Ukraine is completely repeating Russian propaganda that aims to legalize the terrorists by incorporating them into the Ukrainian government.”
The German Foreign Ministry condemned Goncharenko’s vandalism.
“We really regret that the Ukrainian deputy painted the fragment of Berlin Wall located at on territory of the German Embassy. We are confident that even if this was a reaction to the remark of the German Ambassador, this act is absolutely unprecedented,” German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said on Feb. 8.
The German Embassy in Ukraine also blasted Goncharenko’s act, and called it “a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
“The fall of the Berlin Wall for all Europeans and for people living the outside Europe symbolizes liberation from Communism and Soviet hegemony,” reads the embassy’s official statement published on its website on Feb. 8.
“At the same time, it is the violation of the Vienna Convection on Diplomatic Relations.”
However, Goncharenko was unrepentant.
“The Berlin Wall and its fragments are painted all over the world. It is a European democratic tradition – to use it for political statement,” he wrote on Facebook on Feb. 9.
However, other members of Poroshenko’s party worry that Goncharenko’s act may worsen Ukraine’s relations with Germany. Sergii Leshchenko, another lawmaker in the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction in the parliament, called Goncharenko’s actions “idiocy.”
“With such a step, a lawmaker causes a deterioration in Ukraine’s relationship with a key partner in Europe. Without a reaction to this act, the Poroshenko fraction will be complicit in an unfriendly step, and a probable deterioration in relations between Ukraine and Germany will follow,” Leshchenko wrote on his Facebook page on Feb. 8.
Goncharenko, 36, started his political career in 2001 with the pro-Russian Soyuz (Union) political party, but in 2005 switched to ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions. As a Party of Regions member, Goncharenko consistently stated pro-Russian positions. In particular, he actively defended the Russian language policy in Odesa Oblast and actively opposed the dubbing of foreign films into Ukrainian.
However, after the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014, Goncharenko quit the Party of Regions and joined Poroshenko’s party. The same year he also changed his political position radically – he now voices pro-Ukrainian positions, criticizes Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and regularly visits Ukrainian soldiers in the Donbas war zone.
Several Ukrainian lawmakers have condemned Goncharenko’s vandalism and called on the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko to take action.
“I definitely consider Goncharenko’s act of vandalism unacceptable and unworthy, and that it has nothing to do with protecting national interests – it’s a provocation,” independent member of parliament Hanna Hopko wrote on her Facebook page on Feb. 9, adding that such behavior was against the law.
“It might have been seen as a crime by law enforcement if it hadn’t been done by a lawmaker,” Hopko wrote.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said on Feb. 9 that prosecutors in Kyiv had opened a criminal case into an act of hooliganism near the German Embassy.
