Canada’s mission to the United Nations took red ink to a letter from its Russian counterparts that decried the humanitarian disaster unfurling in Eastern Europe as a direct result of the Vladimir Putin-ordered military invasion of Ukraine.
Canada’s mission didn’t have patience for the sympathy purportedly expressed by the Russian envoy, and completely rewrote the note.
It changed this part:
I am reaching out to you with regard to an urgent matter related to the dire humanitarian situation in and around Ukraine. Like other members of the international community, we are gravely concerned about its deterioration.
To this:
I am reaching out to you with regard to an urgent matter related to the dire humanitarian situation in and around Ukraine which we have caused as a result of our illegal war of aggression. We are not gravely concerned about its deterioration because we are the primary cause.
The Canadians also demanded to know: “How do you account for the bombing of a maternity ward and the destruction of over 200 schools?”
And: “How do you account for Russia forces besieging cities, preventing civilians from fleeing, denying humanitarian aid, attacking humanitarian corridors and looting aid?”
Read Canada’s heavily annotated letter here:
The letter was well received from the missions of Finland, Sweden, Denmark and other nations that all called for Russia to immediately end its war on Ukraine, which has seen more than 3 million Ukrainians flee the country.
Russian diplomat Dmitry Polyanskiy, however, called it “kindergarten-level Russophobic libel!”