Diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Russia are limited only to consular services, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Turkey Vasyl Bodnar said on the air of the Dom television channel. “Relations between the countries [Ukraine and Russia] are coming to naught, and are limited only to meeting these consular needs,” he said.
However, Ukraine did not break off diplomatic relations with Russia, because no country agreed to represent Kyiv’s interests in Moscow, although “this decision should have been made back in 2014, when the active phase of hostilities started.”
“But at the same time, millions of Ukrainians are in Russia. Then they were working, and now for various reasons. And for the most part, our diplomatic presence there is focused on consular work. This means that consuls provide our citizens with documents, visit them in prisons, and there are several thousand, and plus, the political hostages of the Kremlin from Crimea, this is the representation of our interests in courts, in other institutions,” he said.
Bodnar mentioned Georgia, which broke off diplomatic relations with Russia after the 2008 war, represented by Switzerland.
“We carried out a ‘probing’ of positions, none of the countries represented in Moscow agreed to represent our interests, given the amount of work that would have to be done to ensure the interests of our citizens,” the diplomat said.
Bodnar said now the diplomatic presence between the countries is at a low level: there is no ambassador of either Ukraine in Russia or Russia in Ukraine.
He also said that, most likely, such representation will only decrease.
