Alexei Shebarshin, Russian Ambassador to Nigeria, has assured the Nigerian government that its citizens won't be harmed following the invasion of Russia in Ukraine.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, who met with the envoy behind closed doors on Friday, February 25, quoted Shebarshin as saying that Nigeria is a friendly nation to Russia and efforts will be made to ensure no Nigerian is hurt in the raging war.
The Minister mentioned that he told the Russian envoy that Nigeria as a country would not condone the violation of the territorial integrity of a United Nations member state, a country with which Nigeria has diplomatic relations.
“This is really the position of the government and also, that we have 5,600 Nigerians in Ukraine and we are very concerned about what we are hearing and what we are seeing regarding missiles and bombs about the safety of Nigerian citizens there and also that we would like to be able to evacuate them.
He said that this would be communicated to his headquarters and that obviously, they consider Nigeria a friendly country.
The Russian envoy also said that they would do nothing to harm Nigerians and assured me that their action is targeted at military installations and that they are not about to start attacking civilian areas and so forth'' Onyeama said
