The resignation this week of a veteran Russian diplomat over Moscow’s war in Ukraine is a sign that Vladimir Putin is becoming increasingly isolated, according to former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
Boris Bondarev, who served as one of Moscow’s top diplomats for the past two decades, formally resigned from his U.N. posting on Monday, citing Ukraine as his breaking point. "For 20 years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on Feb. 24 of this year," he wrote in his resignation letter.
Haley, who represented the United States at the U.N. during the Trump administration, told the Washington Free Beacon that Bondarev’s resignation is a sign of crumbling internal support for Putin and his war machine. The resignation of a high-profile Russian envoy could prompt other Russian officials to follow suit, particularly as Putin tries to quell dissent regarding the war within his own government.
"Boris Bondarev can’t be the only Russian diplomat who believes Putin’s war is a crime against humanity," Haley said. "It's not easy to take a principled stand, especially against Putin, but we should all applaud Boris’s courage and pray for his safety."
Bondarev said the unprovoked military incursion into Ukraine is a crime against the entire Western world.
"The aggressive war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine, and in fact against the entire Western world, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also, perhaps, the most serious crime against the people of Russia," the former diplomat said.
Bondarev said following his resignation that he could no longer stomach Putin’s ongoing invasion.
"It is intolerable what my government is doing now," Bondarev told the Associated Press. "As a civil servant, I have to carry a share of responsibility for that. And I don’t want to do that."