Kiev Accuses Moscow Of Trying To Discredit Ukraine At COP26 Over Incident With Zelenskyy

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published November 03, 2021 | 07:05 PM

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday accused Russia of attempting to discredit Ukraine at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, claiming that Russian media tried to create a scandal when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy missed a panel

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd November, 2021) Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday accused Russia of attempting to discredit Ukraine at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, claiming that Russian media tried to create a scandal when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy missed a panel.

The Ukrainian leader was absent during the Tuesday COP26 session when he was invited to speak by the event's moderator, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. Kuleba explained in a video address on Facebook that Zelenskyy's tight schedule, due to a large number of meetings on the COP26 sidelines, did not allow the Ukrainian delegation to make it to the hall where the session was being held in time. At the moment when Zelenskyy was invited to deliver a speech, he was in a meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the diplomat said.

The Ukrainian minister believes that the Russian media began to disseminate information "that there seemed to be a scandal with the Ukrainian president not being present at the meeting when John Kerry, who was moderating it, announced Ukraine's speech."

"Ukraine had warned the organizers that we were not making it on time, and it was not the fault of Ukraine but of the organizers of this event. Let us not be tricked by all these Russian reproaches and all their provocations ... that they actively disseminate in the information space to discredit Ukraine," Kuleba added.

The diplomat pointed that it was nothing major, but "a normal organizational moment."

The UN climate conference kicked off on October 31 and is due to last until November 12.