NUR-SULTAN, August 23. /TASS/. Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry summoned Ukrainian Ambassador Pyotr Vrublevsky over his remarks about Russians, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Deputy Foreign Minister Yermukhambet Konuspayev met with Ukrainian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Pyotr Vrublevsky to protest against the remarks that he had made in an interview with Kazakh blogger Dias Kuzairov on August 21," the statement reads. According to the Foreign Ministry, Kazakhstan emphasized that such remarks were unacceptable for a foreign ambassador whose activities "should not harm friendly relations between countries."
The Russian Investigative Committee earlier pointed to a video posted on social media, which showed a man believed to be Ukrainian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Pyotr Vrublevsky saying that the Ukrainian regime sought to kill as many Russians as possible.
Meanwhile, the Association of Russian, Slavic and Cossack Organizations of Kazakhstan demanded that the country’s Foreign Ministry declare Vrublevsky persona non grata for his remarks about the killings of Russians. "Such statements are incompatible with the status of an ambassador and diplomatic ethics. Demarches like this infringe on peace and harmony in our country, where over 120 ethnic groups, including Russians and Ukrainians, live in peace and amity. In this regard, the association demands that Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry declare Ukrainian Ambassador Vrublevsky persona non grata," the association said in a statement released by its Chairman Vladimir Bozhko on Tuesday.
The Council of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, in turn, slammed the Ukrainian envoy’s remarks as unacceptable. "Hate speech is alien to us, we neither accept nor comprehend the propaganda of ethnic hatred in any form. We urge all citizens of Kazakhstan to resist any incitement that sows enmity and distrust, but preserve and strengthen peace in the country and the unity of the people for the present and future of our children," the council said in a statement.