Kazakhstan rejected Russia's request to expel the Ukrainian ambassador
Kazakh authorities rejected Russia's request to expel the Ukrainian ambassador over comments about the killings of Russians, accusing Moscow of what they called an inappropriate tone between "equal strategic partners".
Russia's ties with Kazakhstan and some of its other former Soviet allies have become strained during the war in Ukraine, particularly over President Vladimir Putin's attempts to abandon post-Soviet border agreements in the country's east. Reuters.
Tensions escalated after the Ukrainian ambassador in Astana, Petro Vrublevski, said that "the more Russians we kill now, the fewer of them our children will have to kill."
Russia asked Kazakhstan to expel the diplomat in response, but Astana instead asked Kyiv to replace him, saying his comments were unacceptable for a country with a large ethnic Russian minority.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that Moscow was "outraged" by the fact that Vrublevski was still in Astana and had summoned the Kazakh ambassador.
Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiarov called Zakharova's tone "inconsistent with the nature of allied relations between Kazakhstan and Russia as equal strategic partners," adding that the Russian ambassador would be summoned to the Kazakh ministry in return.
Smadiarov said that Vrublevski will leave Kazakhstan after a new Ukrainian ambassador arrives.
Kazakhstan has traditionally maintained close economic and security ties with Russia, but has distanced itself from Moscow since it invaded Ukraine in February.
Astana has called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict - which Moscow calls a "special military operation" - and has refused to recognize referendums through which Russia annexed parts of Ukraine.