NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry has summoned Ukrainian Ambassador Petro Vrublevskiy over "inappropriate" comments he made in an interview with a Kazakh blogger about Russia's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine that went viral on the Internet and sparked a negative reaction in Russia and among ethnic Russians in Kazakhstan.
In the August 21 video interview, Vrublevskiy answered a question about Russia's war, launched in late February, by saying: "We are trying to kill as many of them as possible. The more Russians we kill now, the less of them our children will have to kill."
The Kazakh Foreign Ministry said in a statement on August 23 that Deputy Foreign Minister Ermukhanbet Konuspaev lodged a protest with Vrublevskiy over the comments.
"The Kazakh side expressed its position that such statements are inappropriate and inconvenient for the activities of the ambassador of a foreign state. Such actions should not harm friendly relations between states," the statement said.
The Association of Russian, Slavic, and Cossack Organizations of Kazakhstan has called on the government to classify Vrublevskiy as a persona non grata.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Kazakhstan has not commented on the situation. Vrublevskiy was not immediately available for comment.
Russia's Investigative Committee said earlier that it plans "to assess" Vrublevskiy's statements.
Kazakhstan, which has aligned itself as Russia's economic ally, has not officially condemned Moscow's military aggression against Ukraine since it was launched six months ago.