Ukrainian Foreign Ministry calls on Austria to expel Russian diplomat for calling for elimination of Ukrainians

"EUROPEAN PRAVDA" — SATURDAY, 20 AUGUST 2022, 15:17

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has called on Austria to expel Mikhail Ulyanov, the permanent representative of the Russian Federation to international organisations in Vienna, whose tweet was interpreted by many as a call to eliminate the Ukrainian nation.

This was stated by Oleh Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, "European Pravda" reports.

"Russian Ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov is calling for the elimination of the Ukrainian nation. This language of genocide cannot be tolerated. We call on the entire diplomatic community in Vienna to boycott Ulyanov and for his host country, Austria, to declare him persona non grata," Nikolenko stated on Twitter.

Shortly before this, Ulyanov had tweeted the following text: "No mercy for the Ukrainian population." He published a post commenting on the gratitude to the United States from the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a new military aid package.

Ulyanov later deleted his post and stated that its content had been misinterpreted.

"I must apologise. I forgot whom I am dealing with. Of course, I meant the US with its weapons supplies and the President of Ukraine who stated just yesterday that he rejects any peace talks. Indeed, no mercy from their side to the Ukrainian population. That is what I said," the Russian representative wrote.

He called attempts to connect his words about Kyiv's politics with a call for genocide "outrageous and absolutely unacceptable." Ulyanov accused the Ukrainian authorities of "not caring about their own population when they categorically reject diplomatic efforts and concentrate exclusively on the accumulation of weapons from the West''.

In July, the Russian Embassy in UK justified the killing of the Azov soldiers, in a post on Twitter, saying that they deserved "a humiliating death".

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