Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s top diplomat to the United Nations, said that the protest resignation of a Russian foreign service officer is a “very courageous act,” but he remains disappointed that so few Russian diplomats have spoken out.
“On the one hand, I can say that it was a very courageous act,” Kyslytsya told CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour Tuesday. “On the other hand, I would say that I’m disappointed.”
“We’re very disappointed in the course of three months and given the numbers of Russian foreign service, there’s only one known case of a person who has dignity and moral standards to speak out against the evil,” Kyslytsya said.
Boris Bondarev, a 20-year veteran of Russia’s diplomatic service, announced his resignation Monday in protest against his country’s war on Ukraine by posting a statement on a LinkedIn account. In the post, he criticized the Russian foreign ministry for participating in an “aggressive war” — language that is proscribed in Russia under wartime censorship laws.
Kyslytsya said that Russian diplomats who continue to be complicit in Russia’s war against Ukraine would ultimately face accountability for their actions.
“I have to face Russian diplomats every week, at least once or twice, in the Security Council. It’s so difficult because you can’t believe it, that people can drivel out those lies so bluntly. But you know, as I said in one of the first meetings, lying and lying and lying is basically ensuring that they have secured the best place, if I may, in hell for them,” he said.
“I think that everything they say in the Security Council may and will be used in a tribunal that will be established. There is no end to this story until all of them, including the Russian diplomats, are called to account,” he said.
Kyslytsya drew a parallel between Russian diplomats today and the ultimate fate of Joachim von Ribbentrop, the foreign minister of Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1945. Von Ribbentrop was found guilty and sentenced to death at the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal following World War II.
“When Ribbentrop was denying his knowledge of concentration camps, by the end of the day, he was convicted. We all know what happened to him,” the ambassador said.