A veteran Russian diplomat in Geneva has resigned over his country’s invasion of Ukraine in a rare political protest from within the Russian foreign policy establishment. Photograph: Handout/APBondarev is the highest-level diplomat yet to resign publicly from the Russian foreign ministry over the war, which began in February. I don’t think that there will be many.”He said he had not had any response yet from the foreign ministry after delivering his letter of resignation on Monday. In his public statement, Bondarev took aim at top officials such as Vladimir Putin and Sergei Lavrov, calling the Russian foreign minister “a good illustration of the degradation of the system”. Thousands of Russians and Ukrainians have already died just for this.”Bondarev is a career diplomat who has worked for the foreign ministry since 2002.
