According to a decree published on Ukraine’s presidential website on Tuesday evening, Kyiv has removed its ambassador to Kazakhstan after Moscow condemned the remarks he made about killing Russians in an interview with noted Kazakh blogger Dias Kuzairov.
The decree did not specify why ambassador Petro Vrublevsky was relieved of his duties and did not appoint a replacement although Kazakhstan informed that the agreement for his recall had been reached after it communicated the unacceptability of Vrublevsky’s statement.
Vrublevskiy became engulfed in the scandal after saying that the more Russians Ukraine kills now, the fewer of them Ukrainian children will have to kill in the future.
Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov said that after the Ukrainian ambassador was called to the ministry, he issued a formal apology.
Previously in October, Russia’s foreign ministry had urged Astana to expel the Ukrainian ambassador following his interview in which he made the remarks he later apologized for. It summoned Kazakh Ambassador Yermek Kosherbayev after reports appeared that Vrublevsky had returned to Astana.
Following Moscow’s demands, Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry hit back and summoned Russia’s ambassador to the ex-Soviet country for a serious talk.
Chiding Moscow for what has been perceived in Astana as an inappropriate tone between equal strategic partners, Kazakh authorities rejected its demand.
Brussels has also expressed hopes that Astana would not obey Moscow by expelling the Ukrainian ambassador, trying to minimize the incident by saying that the Vrublevsky had quoted a Ukrainian war hero.
Due to the Central Asian country’s efforts to balance ties with the West and ally Moscow, ties between Russia and Kazakhstan have been strained since the launch of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kazakhstan’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev went as far as publicly disagreeing with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, assuring at the same time the safety of thousands of Russians fleeing to Kazakhstan after Moscow announced the military call-up in September.
