The Netherlands should not patronise India for abstaining from voting on a United Nations General Assembly resolution to stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said Indian envoy TS Tirumurti.

Netherlands Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Karel van Oosterom, in a tweet had asked India to respect the United Nations charter, PTI reported. Oosterom deleted the tweet soon after.

“Kindly don’t patronise us, Ambassador,” Tirumurti tweeted in response. “We know what to do.”

India has abstained from voting on three United Nations resolutions, including the one in the General Assembly, that have condemned Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

The General Assembly resolution on March 2 had called upon Moscow to “immediately, completely and unconditionally” withdraw all of its military forces from Ukrainian territories. It was adopted as 140 countries voted in its favour, 38 abstained and five voted against it.

India on February 27 had abstained from voting on the United Nations Security Council resolution on holding a special emergency session of the body’s General Assembly to discuss Russia’s attack on Ukraine. On February 25, India did not vote on a United Nations Security Council resolution that deplored Russia’s “aggression” against Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Tirumurti in his speech to the United Nations Security Council, said that India believed that neither Ukraine nor Russia could win this conflict.

The ongoing war has resulted in a “disproportionate impact on the Global South and developing countries” including the skyrocketing oil prices and a shortage of food grains and fertilisers, he added, according to ANI.

“India has strongly condemned the killing of civilians in Bucha and supported the call for an independent investigation,” he said, ANI reported.

In April, videos and images shared on social media had shown bodies of several civilians on the streets of Bucha, a town north of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.

Some of the civilians had their hands tied back and seemed to have been shot from a close distance. The mayor of Bucha had said that the town was littered with bodies, and 280 people had been buried in a mass grave.