Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky has dismissed his ambassador to Kazakhstan, Petro Vrublevski, who in August claimed in an interview that the Ukrainians are “trying to kill as many” Russians as possible because the more they kill now, ” the less they will have to kill our children,” he said.
“I released Petro Yuriyovich Vrublevski from the position of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Kazakhstan,” Zelensky said in a presidential decree published on Wednesday.
Those statements by Vrublevski caused him to be summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, which reproached him that his position is “unacceptable” and “incompatible” with the activities of ambassador, since they damage friendly relations between states.
Consequently, Russia demanded the expulsion of Vrublevski, whom it called “Bandera’s emissary”, in reference to the Ukrainian politician revered by the extreme right, Stepan Bandera. A claim that Moscow was censored from Astana since “it is dissonant with the nature of the allied relations between Kazakhstan and Russia as equal strategic partners.”