I had written another blog for this week. But it didn’t seem right to publish something interesting but not especially important, while far more serious events are taking place in a neighbouring country.
It is part of diplomatic work to keep an eye on those countries next to the ones you serve in. What goes on there might affect what is going on in your country.
The recent protests and events in Ukraine are serious by any measure. A line seems to have been crossed with the deaths this week. That one of those who died was a Belarusian citizen is all the more poignant.
This is a moment of truth for a nation. No one wants to see violence on the streets, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the dispute. We don’t want to see more deaths. It would help the situation if there could be transparent and thorough investigations of wrong-doing in all cases.
As outsiders, we don’t want to make the position worse. We want to see a resolution of the crisis through dialogue. So my government has issued statements to encourage everyone to exercise restraint, refrain from violence and resolve the dispute peacefully.
One of our priorities in such a crisis is to provide advice to British citizens who may be caught up in the protests in Ukraine. We have extensive pages of advice on our website for British travellers abroad. In addition to general advice for all travel, we have country specific advice on all countries. It is at times like this that our colleagues will be updating it regularly for Ukraine.
Like us, our colleagues in Kyiv also provide information via social media such as Facebook, and my opposite number also uses Twitter. They are, of course, very busy now. In a worst case scenario, they may need our help.
I very much hope that we won’t need to help them. I hope that all sides in Ukraine can show restraint, and work to resolve the crisis peacefully.
This is the time to send our best wishes to all of our neighbours in Ukraine.