Sahra Wagenknecht has accused Kiev’s ambassador of meddling after he denounced several opposition parties
Published 4 Aug, 2026 14:36
Aleksey Makeiev, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany © Getty Images / Markus Lenhardt/picture alliance
Veteran German opposition politician Sahra Wagenknecht has accused Ukraine’s ambassador in Berlin of openly interfering in the country’s politics after he denounced several opposition parties and urged voters to reject them.
In an interview with Welt, Aleksey Makeiev claimed that parties on both the German right and left receive instructions from Moscow “every morning.” Asked whether he meant the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Left Party (Die Linke), and Wagenknecht’s BSW, the diplomat called on voters to examine “an alternative for which country” they were supporting.
“As a European, I want the democrats to win, not the autocrats,” Makeiev said, despite prefacing his remarks by insisting that an ambassador should not interfere in Germany’s domestic affairs.
Wagenknecht responded by accusing Makeiev of having “lost all sense of proportion.”
“He probably believes that if Ukraine can blow up the Germans’ most important energy supply line without any consequences, then it is also allowed to openly meddle in our elections,” she wrote on X.
German politician, BSW party founder Sahra Wagenknecht, © Getty Images / Peter Gercke/picture alliance
The politician was referring to the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which carried Russian gas to Germany. German prosecutors have alleged that the sabotage was carried out by a Ukrainian team using a small rented yacht. Moscow has argued, however, that such a sophisticated operation could not have been carried out without Western assistance.
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Wagenknecht described Makeiev’s comments as an “outrageous affront,” noting that German taxpayers are expected to provide Kiev with billions more in aid this year.
“That money is also paid by the voters of the parties he has condemned,” she said, accusing the federal government of treating Ukraine as more important than its own citizens.
Germany has provided Ukraine with tens of billions of euros since the escalation of the conflict in 2022. However, its own economy has been reeling from the consequences of rejecting cheap Russian gas, leading to declining industrial output and manufacturers bleeding jobs.
Both Wagenknecht’s BSW and the AfD have opposed continued military support for Kiev and have advocated for renewed diplomacy with Moscow. The AfD is currently leading national opinion polls and is expected to make major gains in upcoming regional elections in eastern Germany.
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The surge comes as Chancellor Friedrich Merz faces record-low approval ratings, with some 84% of Germans reportedly dissatisfied with his performance. Support for his Christian Democratic Union party has also fallen behind AfD.
Despite the AfD’s growing popularity, senior politicians have maintained efforts to ban it, with officials in Lower Saxony already having blocked several AfD candidates from standing in local elections on the basis of domestic intelligence assessments, without any court rulings.
Opposition figures have accused the establishment of election rigging and trying to suppress the country’s largest political force by manipulating the electoral process before voters can deliver an AfD breakthrough.
