‘We may be bleeding but we will never give up’: Ukrainian ambassador to Malaysia urges everyone to stop business with Russia

Olexander Nechytaylo says everything Russia earns will be spent one way or another on the ‘criminal war in Ukraine’, reiterates nuclear threat

‘Dozens’ of volunteers offer to fight as ‘world never been closer to disaster of such global magnitude’; sanctions must be ‘sustainable, long lasting’

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Medics transport a woman, wounded in the shelling of an apartment building, to an ambulance, as her husband stands nearby, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:51pm, 3 Mar 2022Updated: 10:17pm, 3 Mar 2022

As Russia intensifies its attacks in Ukraine, the Ukrainian ambassador to Malaysia has urged the international community to stop doing business with Russia as “every dollar earned would be used to fund the criminal war”.

Ambassador Olexander Nechytaylo spoke to This Week In Asia as Russia sent paratroopers to encircle key cities in Ukraine and amid reports of Putin’s forces taking control of the major city of Kherson in the south.

“Every dollar earned by Russia will be spent directly or indirectly on the criminal war in Ukraine,” said Nechytaylo.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Malaysia, Olexander Nechytaylo, says international sanctions imposed on Russia must be systemic and sustainable to ensure the Russian economy will be crippled and the regime will not be able to continue their ‘criminal war’. Photo: Amy Chew

He said there was a need to raise awareness that doing business with the Russians is equivalent to “financing terrorism”.

It was very important, he said, that international sanctions imposed on Russia would be systemic, sustainable and long lasting “to make sure the Russian economy will be crippled and Putin’s regime will not be able to continue this criminal war in Ukraine”.

“All major businesses are pulling out of deals with Russia, including in show business,” he said, referring to Warner Bros, Disney and Sony halting the release of films in Russian cinemas.