Ambassador says German minister was against helping Ukraine, thought it would fall within hours.

Andriy Melnyk, Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, said in an interview that German Finance Minister Christian Lindner was against supplying weapons to Ukraine or cutting Russia off the SWIFT messaging system after Russia launched the invasion on Feb. 24. Lidner thought Ukraine would collapse within several hours and was ready to talk to a puppet regime that would be installed by Russia, Melnyk told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. German Ministry of Finance denied the accusation in a comment to the Kyiv Independent.