A senior Russian diplomat has resigned in protest against the invasion of Ukraine.
Boris Bondarev has been a Russian diplomat who worked for the Russian permanent mission to the United Nations Office at Geneva in Switzerland from 2019 until his resignation in May 2022 in protest over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bondarev began working for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2002. From 2019, he was one of the counsellors of the Russian Federation’s mission to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva.
On 23 May 2022, Bondarev announced that he had resigned from his position in protest over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, referring to the invasion as an “aggressive war”, saying that it was not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also “the most serious crime against the people of Russia, with a bold letter Z crossing out all hopes and prospects for a prosperous free society in our country”. Bondarev stated that he had several times expressed his concerns about the invasion with senior embassy staff but was told to keep his “mouth shut in order to avoid ramifications”. He also said that he did not expect other diplomats to follow, and that the goal of the organizers of the war was to “forever remain in power”.
