Ukraine President Zelensky Sacks Envoy To India, Four Other Countries: Report

Kyiv's relations with Germany, which is heavily reliant on Russian energy supplies, and also Europe's biggest economy, has been an extremely sensitive matter.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

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New Delhi: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday announced the dismissal of Kyiv's ambassador to India apart from several other top foreign envoys, news agency Reuters reported the presidential website as saying. Without citing any reason behind the decision, the Ukrainian President announced the sacking of the country’s envoys to Germany, India, Czech Republic, Norway and Hungary. However, it is not yet clear if the envoys would be handed new jobs.

According to the Reuters, amid the ongoing crisis, President Zelenskiy has urged his diplomats to drum up global support and military help for Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russia's invasion.

It is to be noted that Kyiv's relations with Germany, which is heavily reliant on Russian energy supplies, and also Europe's biggest economy, has been an extremely sensitive matter.

Currently, the two capitals are at odds over a German-made turbine that is undergoing maintenance in Canada. As per the report, Germany wants Ottawa to return the turbine to Russian natural gas giant Gazprom to pump gas to Europe, while Kyiv has urged Canada to keep the turbine, saying that shipping it to Russia would be a violation of sanctions imposed on Moscow.

Meanwhile, Russian missiles and rocket strikes continued to cause widespread damage in towns and cities across eastern and southern Ukraine, a BBC report quoted the regional officials as saying.

As per the report, four civilians died in a strike on Siversk, a town in Donetsk region, local governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said. Civilian areas of Druzhkivka, that falls in the same region, were also hit. A supermarket was also destroyed.