On September 8-9th, Georgian and Russian-language Facebook accounts (1,2,3,4,5,6) have been disseminating the information that the Ukrainian Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Petro Vrublevsky, left the country at the request of the Kazakh authorities. Lawyer Irakli Zakareishvili additionally asserted that the ambassador was given only a few hours to leave the country, and he flew to Poland.
The claim that the Ukrainian ambassador to Kazakhstan left the country at the request of the Kazakh authorities is false. According to the information from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Kazakhstan, Petro Vrublevsky left the country because of his vacation.
The Ukrainian and Kazakh sides confirmed the disseminated information about the Ukrainian ambassador leaving Kazakhstan; however, according to both of them, instead of the request of the Kazakh authorities, the ambassador left the country for vacation.
Aibek Smadiarov, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, commented on this topic on September 5th. According to Smadiarov, according to official information, Petro Vrublevsky was on vacation.
The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Oleg Nikolenko, confirmed to the Ukrainian media that Vrublevsky was on vacation.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Kazakhstan came into the spotlight after he said in an interview with Kazakh blogger Diaz Kuzairov on August 21st that Ukraine is trying to “kill as many Russians as possible”.
In connection with this comment, the ambassador of Ukraine was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, and he received a formal complaint. According to the ministry, the content of Vrublevsky’s statement damages the rapprochement process, which is the goal of diplomacy. Later, Petro Vrublevsky apologized for his comment and cited the emotional background caused by the course of the war as the reason behind his words.
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