The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is working to protect the interests of Ukrainian citizens located on the territory of the Russian Federation. Particularly, citizens illegally taken out of the territories occupied by the Russian army, said the Ukrainian Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko.

As you know, there are no Ukrainian diplomatic institutions on the territory of the Russian Federation. On behalf of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reached an agreement in principle with Switzerland on representing Ukrainian interests on the territory of Russia. The choice in favor of Switzerland was made because of its extensive experience in performing such functions, and we are grateful to the Swiss government for their readiness to provide their good services.

Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

He noted that the modality of representing the interests of Ukraine in the Russian Federation by Switzerland will be determined by a bilateral agreement.

At the same time, according to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the receiving party, that is Russia, must provide consent for Switzerland to represent Ukraine’s interests in Russian territory.