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Ukrainian central bank governor leads walkout at IMF meeting during Russian minister's speech

During the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, National Bank of Ukraine Governor Andriy Pyshny and heads of several Western delegations walked out of the IMFC plenary session while Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was speaking, in what participants described as the first such collective protest. Pyshny said delegations from the Scandinavian countries, the EU, Canada, Great Britain, France, and Germany joined him. The walkout came as Germany publicly criticized US efforts to restore Russia's standing in international forums.

Key points

  • Multiple IMFC members walked out of the plenary session in Bangkok during Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov's speech, in solidarity with Ukraine.
  • National Bank of Ukraine Governor Andriy Pyshny said he organized the walkout together with heads of several Western delegations.
  • Pyshny said the departing delegations included all Scandinavian countries, the EU, Canada, Great Britain, France, and Germany.
  • Reuters, citing three sources, reported that representatives of Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were among those who left, describing "nearly a dozen delegates."
  • Pyshny said such a collective walkout had not occurred before and called it a "rather emotional and strong moment."
  • Siluanov was participating in the IMFC meeting for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and addressed the session in Russian.
  • German Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil used the Bangkok meetings to criticize US efforts to restore Russia's position on the world stage.
  • The walkout was first reported by Reuters citing three sources familiar with the situation.

Why it matters

The walkout was described by participants as an unusually strong signal from normally cautious central bankers and finance ministers, and as the first collective protest of its kind at such a forum. Siluanov's appearance was his first at the IMFC since Russia's full-scale invasion, making the protest a direct response to Russia's renewed engagement in international financial institutions. The episode also highlighted transatlantic friction: German Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil used the Bangkok meetings to criticize US efforts to restore Russia's standing, even as Washington invited a Russian official to his first in-person G20 finance meeting since the invasion. Together, the developments underscored how the war continues to divide multilateral economic bodies that have been unable to issue joint communiqués since 2022.

What happened

During the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, multiple delegations walked out of the plenary session of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), a key advisory body of the IMF made up of finance ministers and central bank governors from member countries, while Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was speaking. National Bank of Ukraine Governor Andriy Pyshny said he organized the walkout together with heads of several Western delegations. Pyshny said delegations from the Scandinavian countries, the EU, Canada, Great Britain, France, and Germany joined him, and Reuters, citing three sources, reported that representatives of Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were among those who left, describing "nearly a dozen delegates." Siluanov was participating in the IMFC for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and addressed the session in Russian. Pyshny said such a collective walkout had not occurred before and called the moment "rather emotional and strong," adding that for central bank governors, who are usually cautious, leaving the hall represented a clear position of support for Ukraine. He noted that in previous years the Russian delegation had participated in similar events at various levels and that he personally had always left the room, but no collective walkout had taken place until now.

How Ukrainian sources describe it

Ukrainian outlets frame the walkout as a deliberate, coordinated demarche organized by Ukraine together with Western partners and led by Pyshny. They foreground his first-person account to European Pravda and emphasize his descriptions of the moment as emotional and unprecedented, highlighting the breadth of participating Western countries as a measure of international support. Pyshny himself stressed that he had walked out in previous years but that this year was "fundamentally different," pointing to the collective nature of the protest.

How international sources describe it

International coverage, led by Reuters, focuses on anonymous diplomatic sources describing the walkout without attributing its organization to any specific actor, and places it alongside reporting on US-Russia engagement, including a Trump-Putin deal on Russian diesel fuel reserves and Russia's return to G20 formats. The framing also includes European criticism of Washington's posture toward Moscow, with German Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil publicly opposing what he described as efforts to restore Russia's position on the world stage.

Where reporting differs

Sources differ on exactly which delegations walked out and on the scale of the protest. Reuters, citing three sources, described "many delegations, including representatives of EU countries" and "nearly a dozen delegates," and a separate source named Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Pyshny, by contrast, listed the Scandinavian countries collectively, the EU, Canada, Great Britain, France, and Germany. Reuters does not attribute the organization of the walkout to any particular actor, while Ukrainian reporting and Pyshny's own account describe him as having organized it together with heads of several Western delegations.

Background

The IMFC is a key advisory body of the IMF, made up of finance ministers and central bank governors from member countries. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 deepened divisions inside the committee, which has been unable to issue joint communiqués in subsequent years. In previous years, the Russian delegation had participated in similar IMF/World Bank events at various levels; Pyshny said he personally walked out before, but no collective walkout had occurred until this occasion. Separately, the United States, as current G20 chair, invited a Russian official to his first in-person G20 finance meeting since the start of the invasion, a step European countries publicly opposed.