Boris Bondarev, a diplomat with the Russian delegation to the United Nations in Geneva, wrote in a letter that he was resigning. The reason is the war against Ukraine, according to Hillel Neuer, leader of the independent watchdog UN Watch, on Twitter.
Bondarev confirms at 3 pm to the news agency AP it withdraws. The senior diplomat stated that he handed over the resignation to Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.
Bondarev wrote, is the most senior Russian diplomat to have stepped down since the start of the invasion of Ukraine UN Watch in an article.
During my 20-year career as a diplomat, I have seen various manifestations of our foreign policy, but I have never felt as ashamed of my country as on February 24 this year. Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and in practice against the entire Western world, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also perhaps the most serious crime of all against the Russian people. Bondarev wrote in the letter that with a thick Z, all our hopes and future prospects for a prosperous free society in our country were erased.
Dagbladet tried to contact the Russian delegation to the United Nations in Geneva to confirm information about Bondarev’s departure. The call was rejected.
Unfortunately, I cannot confirm or deny this information. This is a matter of concern to the Russian authorities, and media inquiries about whether they should be directed to the Russian delegation, Alessandra Vellucci, Director of Information at the United Nations in Geneva, answers Dagbladet’s query.
– Boris Bondarev is a hero. We are now urging all other Russian diplomats at the United Nations — and around the world — to follow his moral example and step aside, says Neuer at UN Watch in the article.
In the letter, Bondarev communicates with those he believes are behind the war, and whom he accuses of profiting from it.
– Those who created this war, want only one thing – to remain in power forever, to live in tasteless luxurious mansions, to sail in yachts whose full tonnage can be compared to the Russian Navy, to enjoy unlimited power and complete impunity. To achieve this, they are willing to sacrifice as many lives as possible. The letter said thousands of Russians and Ukrainians had already died as a result.
The diplomat cited Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as “a good example of weathering in the system”.
Over the course of 18 years, he has gone from being a professional and well-educated intellectual, who was highly regarded by my colleagues, to someone who constantly sends out contradictory statements and threatens the world (including Russia) with nuclear weapons! writes Bondarev, who according to the letter has served in the Russian Foreign Ministry since 2002 and has been a member of the Geneva delegation since 2019.
I studied to be a diplomat and worked in the diplomatic business for twenty years. The ministry became my home and my family. Bondarev writes, but I simply can no longer take part in this baseless and baseless bloody shame.
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