A group of Western ambassadors in Serbia called on Moscow to “immediately change course” in order to reduce the suffering and destruction in Ukraine but also in Russia.

All those who care about the future, not only of the people of Ukraine but also of the Russian people must send an unequivocal message that the best way to reduce suffering and destruction is for the Kremlin to immediately change its course, said the ambassadors of Canada, Poland and United Kingdom.

In an article for the daily Politika, ambassadors Giles Norman, Rafał Perl and Sian Macleod said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to military failure, international condemnation and dissatisfaction on the domestic front is the further dragging of the state into the mud with conflicts and even greater violence against the people of Ukraine, while, at the same time, Russian lives are being wasted.

The ambassadors said that the deaths, destruction and devastation will leave a stain on Russia’s reputations and that, the longer they last, the darker that stain will be.

The expectation that soldiers, who perhaps committed war crimes on Putin’s behalf, can simply wash away their sins is grotesque. There must be many in the Kremlin who dread the day when they will have to face the consequences of having supported this adventurism, even in the eyes of their own people, said ambassadors Norman, Perk and Macleod.