Ukraine severs ties with Nicaragua

Ukraine has severed diplomatic ties with the Central American nation of Nicaragua in response to it recognizing occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian, Kyiv’s foreign ministry said.

The lush, tropical state wedged between the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean is among Russia’s staunchest allies.

It was one of only five UN countries to vote against condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has made repeated statements in support of President Vladimir Putin and the war.

In a letter to Putin in July, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega described the invasion as a “heroic battle against NATO-backed Ukrainian neo-Nazism” and announced his country fully supported Russia’s territorial claims, according to local media.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry said it considered Nicaragua’s move “an attempt to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

“In response to such unfriendly acts, Ukraine is announcing the severance of diplomatic relations with the Republic of Nicaragua,” it said in a statement published late Thursday.

Ukraine does not have significant trade ties with Nicaragua or an embassy in the country.

Nicaragua did not immediately comment.

Russia claims five Ukrainian regions as its own — the Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions which it claimed to have annexed in 2022, and Crimea which it seized in 2014.