(COLOMBO) – Russian Ambassador to Colombo Levan Dzhagaryan has questioned the media silence on the ex-Sri Lankan serviceman serving with the Ukraine security forces but instead it has focused only on those embedded with Russian forces.
The Russian envoy raised the issue at a joint media briefing with the Sri Lankan State Minister for Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya at the Foreign Ministry on Thursday.
Ambassador Dzhagaryan underscored the efforts undertaken by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Russian authorities in order to sort out the issue pertaining to the Sri Lankan citizens involved in the conflict in Russia.
Prior to the statement Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry held a discussion with Dzhagaryan relating to the urgent situation regarding the Sri Lankans engaged in the Russia – Ukraine conflict.
Sabry informed the Russian Ambassador of the decision taken by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to send a high-level delegation led by State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tharaka Balasuriya to visit the Russian Federation and engage in discussions with the authorities in Moscow.
The Russian Ambassador shared the concerns of the Sri Lanka side regarding the welfare of its nationals and assured the Minister that all efforts will be made to facilitate the visiting delegation.
In view of the urgency of the situation, Ambassador Dzhagaryan expressed his support to work closely with Sri Lanka to resolve this matter. As an immediate step, Ambassador Dzhagaryan informed that henceforth Russia will do more thorough visa interviews before the issuance of visit visas for Sri Lankan ex-servicemen as it is observed that many of those who left for Russia have travelled on visit visas.
Minister Sabry also reiterated that Sri Lankan authorities have repeated their appeal to the public not to fall victim to human traffickers and to refrain from engaging with illegal channels of employment.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also reached out to the Ukraine authorities in discussing assistance, release and the safe return of Sri Lankans allegedly serving as mercenaries in the Ukraine army.
