Ex-Russian diplomat resigns: 'We won't accept anything other than Putin's victory'

Boris Bondarev, who resigned as a Russian diplomat in May this year in protest against the Russian government's continued military invasion of Ukraine, responded to an NHK interview, saying, "President Putin accepts the end of the war in a way other than victory. No," he said, adding that military aggression would continue unless President Putin could be seen as victorious.

Bondarev, a diplomat at the Russian government's Permanent Mission in Geneva, Switzerland, resigned in May after nearly 20 years as a diplomat in protest against the government's continued military invasion of Ukraine. did.

Mr. Bondarev, who currently lives in Switzerland, responded to an interview with NHK on the 14th, saying that the plan for a military invasion was not known to senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time, and said, "If you do not resign, you will be forced to invade. I thought I would agree.President Putin doesn't care about killing so many people and destroying homes and towns to invade Ukraine.I didn't want to get involved." and denounced the Putin regime.

And after about a month after the invasion began, several colleagues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs resigned, saying, ``They understand that they have passed through what is called the point of no return, and it will get worse from here on. On the other hand, I thought that I had no idea how to return to the original normal track," he said, and some diplomats and others understand that the Putin administration has steered in an irreversible direction. I pointed out.

However, as the invasion dragged on, the pressure from the government grew stronger, and he said, "After retiring, I might be arrested or subjected to some kind of repression." He pointed out that it is difficult to resign from his job due to the lack of a voice of protest.

Regarding the Ukrainian counteroffensive and the withdrawal of troops from the southern province of Kherson, Bondarev said, "At first, the Russian government thought that Ukraine would be defeated soon, but the situation on the front line was bad. And most government officials must think that something unexpected is happening."

"Putin decided to sharply raise his authority through a war like this, blaming the war for all his problems and failures, saying, 'We have enemies, so we have the Putin regime.' We invaded to say, 'We need it. He indicated that military aggression will continue unless it becomes.