Conflicts & War

‘Ashamed’ Russian diplomat quits over war in Ukraine

Geneva, May 23 (EFE).- Russian diplomat Boris Bondarev, a counselor at Russia’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva, has resigned over his country’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a statement published by the NGO UNWatch and considered to be authentic by diplomatic sources in Geneva, Bondarev said the “aggressive war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine (…) is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also (…) against the people of Russia.”

The invasion, launched on February 24, had wiped “out all hopes and prospects for a prosperous free society” in Russia, he said.

“For 20 years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on February 24,” the statement added.

Bondarev, who had also worked directly for the Russian Foreign Ministry, is the highest-ranking diplomat to defect since the beginning of the conflict.

The diplomat said that over the past 20 years, “the level of lies and unprofessionalism” of Russian diplomacy had been steadily increasing but had dramatically worsened in recent years.

“Instead of unbiased information, impartial analysis and sober forecasting, there are propaganda clichés in the spirit of Soviet newspapers of the 1930s. A system has been built that deceives itself,” Bondarev said.

He pointed to current foreign minister Sergey Lavrov as a prime example of the “degradation of this system.”

“In 18 years, he went from a professional and educated intellectual, whom many of my colleagues held in such high esteem, to a person who constantly broadcasts conflicting statements and threatens the world (that is, Russia too) with nuclear weapons,” he said.

He accused Russia’s foreign ministry of prioritizing “warmongering, lies and hatred” and “contributing to the further isolation and degradation” of his country.

“Russia no longer has allies, and there is no one to blame but its reckless and ill-conceived policy,” Bondarev said.EFE

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