BorisBondarev, a who identified himself on LinkedIn as a counsellor at Russia"spermanent mission to the UN who worked on arms control, told Reuters: "Iwent to the mission like any other Monday morning and I forwarded myresignation letter and I walked out."
"Istarted to imagine this a few years ago but the scale of this disaster drove meto do it," he said, referring to Russia"s invasion of Ukraine that beganon Feb 24.
He said hehad raised his concerns about the invasion with senior embassy staff severaltimes. "I was told to keep my mouth shut in order to avoidramifications," he said.
There was noimmediate comment from the Russian permanent mission to the UN.
Earlier, heannounced his departure on LinkedIn.
"Istudied to be a diplomat and have been a diplomat for twenty years,"Bondarev wrote. "The (Russian foreign) ministry has become my home andfamily. But I simply cannot any longer share in this bloody, witless andabsolutely needless ignominy."
Ukraine hadurged Russian diplomats to resign in a Human Rights Council debate in March. However,Bondarev said he did not expect others to follow. "I"m afraid I am theonly one."
KiraYarmysh, the spokesperson of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, welcomed theresignation.
"Itseems that there is only one honest person at the foreign ministry," shewrote on Twitter.
Russia senttens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what it called a special operationto degrade its southern neighbour"s military capabilities and root out peopleit called dangerous nationalists.
The West hasimposed sweeping sanctions on Russia and provided Ukraine with military supportin response.
