Bangladesh calls for a peaceful end to Ukraine-Russia crisis through UN Charter

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has reiterated Bangladesh calls for the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine to be peacefully resolved in line with the Charter of the United Nations.

In an interview with bdnews24.com in New York on Thursday, he said, Bangladesh is 'monitoring' the situation in Eastern Europe.

"The world is already reeling from a pandemic and so it does not want to see a terrible war. Bangladesh also wants a peaceful settlement and that could be achieved through the UN Charter.”

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine overwhelmingly for independence and aims to join NATO and the European Union, aspirations that infuriate Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Ukraine an artificial creation carved from Russia by its enemies, a characterisation Ukrainians say is false.

Despite Putin denying any plans of an invasion for months, tensions continued to simmer as Russia recognised Donetsk and Luhansk, two separatist-held territories in eastern Ukraine, as independent.

Later on Thursday, Russian forces invaded Ukraine by land, air and sea on Thursday in the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two.

Russian missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities and Ukraine reported columns of troops pouring across its borders into the eastern Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Luhansk regions. Russian troops also landed by sea at the port cities of Odessa and Mariupol in the south.

Explosions were heard before dawn in the capital Kyiv, a city of 3 million people. Gunfire rattled, sirens blared, and the highway out of the city choked with traffic as residents fled.

In response, the United States and its Western allies have imposed a series of sanctions on Russian individuals and financial institutions. Bangladeshi exporters are also worried about the potential ramifications of the conflict on trade.

Bangladesh also finds itself in a bind as the country's first nuclear power plant is being built in Pabna's Rooppur with the cooperation of Russia.

Questions have now been raised as to whether the project will be complicated by the sanctions imposed by the US and its allies.

But Momen did not address the matter directly. "We are monitoring the situation," he said. "I hope everything will be normal in the diplomatic process."

As the conflict escalates, many Bangladeshis living in different cities of Ukraine now find themselves stranded and in need of evacuation. Most of them are students.

As there is no Bangladeshi mission in Ukraine, the embassy in Poland's capital Warsaw is coordinating efforts to evacuate them.

Poland has agreed to grant entry to Bangladeshis without a visa. They will only be required to present their passports or valid documents at the border, the embassy in Poland said in a statement on Friday.

Arrangements will also be made for undocumented migrants to return to Bangladesh through Poland, the foreign minister said.

Momen is currently on an official visit to New York. He is scheduled to attend a high-level meeting on "Galvanizing Momentum for Universal Vaccination" at the UN headquarters.

Momen met with President of the United Nations General Assembly Abdullah Shahid on Thursday. However, they did not hold any specific discussion on the situation in Ukraine, according to him.