Recent remarks by Ukrainian spy chief Kirill Budanov are “a flagrant example of hate speech,” the Russian envoy to the UN has said
FILE PHOTO. Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia. © Getty Images / Anadolu Agency / Lev Radin
Moscow’s permanent representative at the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, has alerted the UN Security Council over recent “Russophobic” remarks by top Ukrainian officials and particularly by Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) chief General Kirill Budanov.
In a letter to the incumbent President of the UN Security Council, Swiss permanent representative Pascale Baeriswyl, seen by RT, Nebenzia condemned the “unacceptable statements” by Budanov, as well as a recent “survey” conducted by the Ukrainian News Agency UNIAN.
In a recent interview, Budanov declared: “We’ve been killing Russians and we will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine.” UNIAN, for its part, has run a controversial poll on its official Telegram channel “with the main question about who should be the next after Daria Dugina, Vladlen Tatarsky (both killed in terrorist attacks) and Zakhar Prilepin (injured in terrorist attacks),” Nebenzia’s letter relates. All the Russian public figures listed are believed to have been targeted in attacks orchestrated by Kiev’s intelligence services.
“These manifestations of hate speech, Russophobia, incitement to violence on the basis of nationality are, at a minimum, a flagrant violation of the rules of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination,” Nebenzia pointed out, asking the UN Security Council president to circulate the letter within the body as an official document.
While the letter itself was dated May 10, since then Ukrainian officials have made more hostile remarks. Budanov himself, for instance, claimed responsibility for assassinating multiple high-profile Russian public figures. Refusing to provide any exact names, the spy boss claimed on Tuesday that “we have already gotten many, including public and media personalities.”
The admission garnered condemnation in Moscow, with Russia’s foreign-ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova branding it clear evidence of state-level terrorism waged by Kiev. “Terrorists. Those who provide excuses for the Kiev regime and sponsor it are accomplices of terrorists. Will the UN not notice that again?” she wrote on Telegram.
