Ukraine is hurting, appreciates Thailand’s support, but needs more of it, its top diplomat to the kingdom said today in his country’s answer to a Russian news conference held earlier this week.
While Charges d’Affaires Oleksandr Lysak rejected characterizations of the conflict as anything other than a war of aggression by Russia, his primary message was one of gratitude – despite the Thai government’s mixed and tepid response – while pleading for more help.
“I’d like to thank the Royal Thai Government and Thai people for their significant and substantial support for Ukraine,” Lysak said after presenting the same Close the Sky video shown a day earlier to U.S. lawmakers.
He noted that Thais have donated over THB7 million (US$210,000) to an account created by the embassy. Addressing questions of transparency, Lysak said that the money was going directly to the National Bank of Ukraine to support humanitarian efforts, and over THB5 million of it had already been transferred.
Despite Thai nationals declaring their interest in fighting as volunteers in Ukraine, Lysak said none was yet in the country.
“At the moment, no Thai citizens volunteering are in Ukraine and serving as military in Ukraine,” he said.
Coconuts has reached out to those who announced plans to volunteer for comment. Lysak said the embassy was attempting to aid any of the 3,000-plus Ukrainians in the kingdom who might be stuck or unable to travel.
Lysak threaded the needle of diplomacy by focusing on the Thai U.N. delegation’s vote in support of a condemning Russian aggression and avoiding mention of the neutrality espoused by Gen. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.
He declined to address why they were told to remove small Thai flags on display prior to the event.
Bangkok Post trashed for broadcasting Russian ambassador’s ‘propaganda’
The presser, open to all working in the media, came three days after Russian ambassador Evgeny Tomikhin invited a select few Thai reporters to his embassy for a Q&A that excluded all reporters with international news agencies.
The versions of reality presented were night and day. Where Lysak described a brutal assault that has killed thousands and is leveling cities with increasingly indiscriminate bombing, Tomikhin presented a “special military operation” to eliminate “Nazis” in the Ukrainian government of Ukrainian Jew Volodymyr Zelensky, and protect his country from secret bioweapons he said are being made there by the U.S. government which could possibly be delivered by unladen swallows.
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