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Russian amb criticizes ex-pres Maumoon over Ukraine comments

Russian Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Mr. Levan Dzhagaryan has criticized former Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom for his remarks on Russia's military actions in Ukraine.

On August 27, Maumoon posted on social media platform X, expressing his frustrations over recent Russian air attacks on Ukraine. In his tweet, he questioned if the UN Security Council still existed due to their silence over the attacks.

"The BBC says Russia has carried out heavy air strikes in Ukraine over the past two nights. But the UN has said nothing about it," Maumoon said in the post.

In response, the official X account of the Russian Embassy in Sri Lanka shared a comment from Ambassador Levan Dzhagaryan, where he condemned Maumoon's comments. Dzhagaryan reminded Maumoon of Russia's reasons for launching the attack on Ukraine, stating that the Ukrainian government, led by President Zelensky, had caused numerous civilian casualties in the Donbas region.

"I kindly remind Mr. Gayyoom that the barbarian actions by the Zelensky administration led to numerous victims among civilians in Donbas. One should wonder why Mr. Gayyoom is not bothered by these issues," he wrote.

The ambassador said Russia has made four peace offers to Ukraine since 2022, but that Ukraine did not want to stop the attacks. He suggested that the USA and the United Kingdom disrupted the talks and instructed Zelensky to continue the war. He called on Maumoon to avoid following the "double standards" of Western policies and instead express concern over the UN Security Council's inability to address the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.