Russian Foreign Ministry Summoned Ukrainian Diplomat Over Incident With Consul In Lviv

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th June, 2021) The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine's charge d'affaires ad interim to express resolute protest over the recent incident with the Russian consul in Lviv, the ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, announced on Thursday.

According to Zakharova, on June 6, a group of radicals in the Lviv region disrupted the ceremony of laying of flowers to the monument to poet Alexander Pushkin, in which Russian diplomats and Ukrainian citizens participated. Radicals were chanting fascist slogans. Zakharova noted that Irina Kulagina, the acting Russian consul in Lviv, was taking part in the ceremony as well. Ukrainian police officers stood still.

"The radicals snatched a bunch of flower our of her hands using force, they had no respect to the memory of the generally recognized world culture figure or to the diplomatic status of our consular employee ... Therefore, today, on June 10, at 10:00 [07:00 GMT], Ukraine's charge d'affaires ad interim in Moscow, Vasiliy Pokotilo, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. We expressed resolute protest over Kiev's new violation of the 1961 and the 1963 Vienna Conventions," Zakharova said at a briefing.

Moscow called on Kiev again to prevent provocations and ensure normal functioning of the Russian diplomatic missions, the diplomat emphasized.