Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Dmitry Lyubinsky urged Washington to release Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro at a meeting of UN member countries in Geneva on Monday, Russian state media reported.
Maduro and his wife were abducted from their Caracas palace by US special forces on Jan. 3, on the orders of US President Donald Trump. They appeared in a New York court room to plead not guilty to charges of drug trafficking just days later.
Speaking at a meeting of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, Lyubinsky described the US military operation as “a flagrant violation of international law, including the UN Charter,” according to Russian state media outlet TASS.
“We strongly call on Washington to immediately release Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. We stand firm for respecting Venezuela’s sovereignty and peaceful settlement of all differences,” he said.
Despite deposing Maduro, Trump has thus far refused to facilitate elections in Venezuela – declaring the US to be “in charge” of the Latin American country. Maduro’s vice president was sworn in as an interim measure, despite mass public protests.
Lyubinsky also commented on Trump’s promise that US companies would “fix” Venezuela’s oil infrastructure and “start making money” for the country, while continuing to enforce an embargo on Venezuelan oil.
“Venezuelan oil export channels are now being forcibly redirected toward the United States, which significantly undermines the wellbeing of citizens and the humanitarian situation in the country,” Lyubinsky said.
Trump’s toppling of the Venezuelan regime has created something of a problem for Moscow. On the one hand, Maduro was a good friend to the Kremlin. On the other, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy of placating Trump has proved too effective for him to risk changing it now.
Lyubinsky’s remarks were made on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. More than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians were wounded in 2025 alone, according to the the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.