Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, caused outrage in Ukraine with a message on Twitter that was later deleted.
Last night, Ulyanov commented on a tweet by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who thanked him for the US arms deliveries, with “No mercy to the Ukrainian people!”. Representatives from Ukraine interpreted this as a call for genocide.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry calls for expulsion from Vienna
“Russian Ambassador to Austria Ulyanov speaks of the need for a ‘final solution to the Ukrainian question’ and calls for genocide,” Zelenskyi’s aide Mikhail Podoliak said on Twitter this morning.
At the same time, he complained that voices like “Not all Russians are Putin” and “Maybe we should activate ‘Nord Stream 2′” were being heard in Europe. It’s time to understand that Russia is a fascist power structure with millions of people, wrote Podoljak in Ukrainian.
“This genocidal language must not be tolerated,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko wrote on Twitter. The entire diplomatic community in Vienna must boycott Ulyanev, and Austria, as the host country, must declare him an undesirable person, he demanded. Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefantschuk had already asked Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen to “deport Ulyanov immediately”.
Diplomat feels misunderstood
Ulyanov, who later deleted his tweet in English, felt misunderstood. In a phone call to the APA, he said he was “of course not” advocating genocide against Ukrainians.
Perhaps he should have written a question mark instead of an exclamation point in his post, he admitted self-criticism. “But I reacted emotionally to Zelenskyi’s message – again just weapons, no diplomacy,” he said.