14 2GM Tuesday May 24 2022 | the times
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critical message of the government on
Instagram, only for diplomats to later
insist the post had been a “fake”.
In his letter Bondarev reserved
particular criticism for Sergey Lavrov,
72, the Russian foreign minister, a
highly educated multilinguist who has
been in post since 2004.
“Minister Lavrov is a good illustra-
tion of the degradation of this system,”
Bondarev said. “In 18 years, he went
from a professional and educated intel-
lectual, whom many of my colleagues
held in such high esteem, to a person
who constantly broadcasts conflicting
statements and threatens the world
with nuclear weapons!
“Today the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs is not about diplomacy. It is all
about warmongering, lies and hatred. It
serves the interests of few, the very fewThe now former envoy Boris Bondarev
in a picture from his LinkedIn profilePresident Zelensky has told the World
Economic Forum that it has the chance
to fund the biggest reconstruction effort
since the Second World War and that
delays in financing and arms supplies
had cost “tens of thousands of lives”.
Appearing by video link at Davos
yesterday, Zelensky, 44, said that one
lesson from the first three months of
the war had been that “support to the
country under attack is more valuable
the sooner it is provided”.
“If we received [money, weapons and
more political support] in February, the
result would be tens of thousands of
lives saved,” he said. “This is why
Ukraine needs all the weapons we ask
for. There is a cost of $5 billion a
month.” Kyiv estimates that this sum
would cover government services and
keep its economy functioning.
Zelensky called for an immediate oil
embargo on Russia, punitive measures
against all its banks and the shunning of
its technology sector, adding that all
foreign companies should leave Russia.
“There should not be any trade with
Russia,” he said. “I believe there are still
no such sanctions against Russia, and
there should be.”
Although America, Britain and
Canada have moved to ban Russian oil
and gas, the EU has been divided over
such measures. Germany and Hungary
depend heavily on Russian supplies.
The 2,500 delegates and 50 worldleaders at Davos include Olaf Scholz,
the German chancellor, Ursula von der
Leyen, president of the European
Commission, Jens Stoltenberg, the sec-
retary-general of Nato, and John Kerry,
the US climate envoy.
“This is a moment when brute force
may rule the world,” Zelensky said. “If
so, there will be no reason for meetings
in Davos.”
The Ukrainian economy had sus-
tained damage costing more than half a
trillion dollars to its industries and
infrastructure, Zelensky said. Ukraine
is offering countries and companies
that fund its reconstruction “patron-
age” over geographical areas and
industries.
“We are offering the world the
chance to set a precedent to rebuild
after the war and show that the war is
not working,” he said. “We need to buildThe British and American govern-
ments are looking at alternatives to
GPS because of fears that disabling it
could allow a war of the future to be
won without a shot being fired.
Jeremy Quin, the procurement min-
ister, told The Times that the govern-
ment “will need to be alert” to meddling
with satellite signals.
Referring to the use of GPS jamming
equipment by Russian forces in
Ukraine, he said: “There is a whole
range of capabilities that are being de-
ployed on both sides. We need to learn
the lessons from that and continue our
own innovative work in the field.”
As well as space-based systems such
as OneWeb, the UK government is
reviewing non-space systems.
The US company NextNav has intro-
duced a ground-based alternative in
San Francisco, is working with the US
government to provide a backup
Zelensky asks Davos to
Mehreen Khan Economics Editor, Davos International aid to Ukraine
US
UK
EU*
Poland
Germany
France
Canada
Italy
Norway
Sweden€10bn €20bn €30bn €40bnFinancial
Humanitarian
Military
*EU bodies
Source: Kiel Korking Paper
(Antezza et al. 2022)Russian envoy fears
reprisals after attack
on ‘witless’ invasion
George Grylls
A Russian diplomat spoke of
his fear of Kremlin reprisals
yesterday, hours after resign-
ing over the “bloody, witless
and absolutely needless” war
in Ukraine.
Boris Bondarev, a counsel-
lor for the Russian mission at
the United Nations in Geneva, said that
he had had enough of the “lies and
unprofessionalism” in the country’s
foreign ministry as he criticised figures
within the Kremlin who want “to
remain in power for ever”.
In a resignation letter published by a
Swiss non-governmental organisation,
he said the war launched by President
Putin was a “crime against the Ukrain-
ian people” that would ruin the Russian
economy and “all hopes and prospects
for a prosperous free society”.
He said: “For 20 years of my diplo-
matic career I have seen different turns
of our foreign policy but never have I
been so ashamed of my country as on
February 24 of this year.
“The aggressive war unleashed by
Putin against Ukraine, and in fact
against the entire western world, is not
only a crime against the Ukrainian
people, but also, perhaps, the most
serious crime against the people of
Russia, with a bold letter Z crossing out
all hopes and prospects for a prosper-
ous free society in our country.
“Those who conceived this war want
only one thing — to remain in power
for ever, live in pompous, tasteless
palaces, sail on yachts comparable in
tonnage and cost to the entire Russian
navy, enjoying unlimited power and
complete impunity. To achieve that,
they are willing to sacrifice as many
lives as it takes. Thousands of Russians
and Ukrainians have already died just
for this.”
Bondarev is not the first official to
have resigned over the war. Anatoly
Chubais, a longtime aide to Putin, quit
in March. This month the head of the
Russian consulate in Edinburgh ap-
peared to step down when he posted a
people thus contributing to further iso-
lation and degradation of my country.
Russia no longer has allies, and there is
no one to blame but its reckless and ill-
conceived policy. I studied to be a diplo-
mat and have been a diplomat for 20
years. The ministry has become my
home and family. But I simply cannot
any longer share in this bloody, witless
and absolutely needless ignominy.”
Soon after the letter was released,
Bondarev told reporters: “It is intoler-
able what my government is doing now.
As a civil servant, I have to carry a share
of responsibility for that, and I don’t
want to do that.”
He said that he had not received any
reaction from Russian officials but
added: “Am I concerned about the
possible reaction from Moscow? I have
to be concerned about it.”
Asked if some colleagues felt the
same, he added: “Not all Russian diplo-
mats are warmongering. They are
reasonable but they have to keep their
mouths shut.”
He suggested that he may be made an
example of. “If my case is prosecuted,
then if other people want to follow, they
would not,” he said.
Hillel Neuer, director of the Swiss
non-governmental organisation UN
Watch, said: “Boris Bondarev is a hero.
We are now calling on all other Russian
diplomats at the United Nations — and
worldwide — to follow his moral exam-
ple and resign.
“Bondarev should be invited to speak
in Davos this week and the US, the UK
and the EU should lead the free world
in creating a programme to encourage
more Russian diplomats to follow and
defect, by providing protection,
financial security and resettlement for
diplomats and their families.”News War in Ukraine
Song of war
A performance
by a Ukrainian
military band
celebrating
the Bayraktar
TB2 droneWest tries to counter GPS jamming
Larisa Brown Defence Editor system, and is in talks with the UK
about bringing it to cities such as
London and Manchester.
The equipment uses terrestrial trans-
mitter stations that send signals across
a city to determine timing and location.
It also uses barometric pressure sensors
on mobile phones and other devices to
find the altitude of the person or vehicle
involved. The company says the equip-
ment is harder to jam than GPS and
works better in cities. It can give accu-
rate positions inside blocks of flats.
Ganesh Pattabiraman, chief execu-
tive of NextNav, said that disabling
worldwide GPS could collapse the
banking system, stop mobile phones
from working and, on the battlefield,
prevent precision missiles from reach-
ing their targets.
“I can take out the electric grid, the
telecommunications systems, every-
thing, by jamming GPS and I don’t have
to fire a single shot. That’s the level of
risk we are facing,” he said.
Transmitter stations
are deployed on the
ground, making it more
effective and secure
than GPS1How it works
2Using barometric
pressure sensors
on phones, it can
geolocate positions
inside high-rise
buildings to within three metresSource: NextNav