‘NO PURGATORY’

Ukraine Diplomat Tells Russian Ambassador to His Face: Putin’s War Criminals Will Go ‘Straight to Hell’

Ukraine’s UN ambassador delivered a devastating rebuke to his Russian counterpart early Wednesday.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations confronted Russia’s representative to his face early Thursday moments after Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale military invasion of his country. Putin declared a “special military operation” in Ukraine while an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council—which is, ironically, being chaired by Russia this month—was already underway. At the end of the meeting, Ukraine’s UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, turned to his Russian counterpart and told him: “Relinquish your duties as the chair. Call Putin, call [foreign minister Sergei] Lavrov to stop aggression... I welcome the decision of some members of this council to meet as soon as possible to consider the necessary decision, that would condemn the aggression that you have launched on my people.” In a devastating sign-off, he added: “There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, ambassador.”