SKorea urges Russian embassy to remove 'victory' banner

South Korea has asked the Russian embassy in Seoul to take down a large banner reading "Victory will be ours", its foreign ministry said, just ahead of this week's fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine.



The ministry said in a statement on Sunday that it had conveyed its concerns to the embassy without clarifying whether it had received a response.



The roughly 15-metre banner, in the colours of the Russian flag and written in Russian, was hung on the embassy's outer wall in central Seoul ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday.



The banner remained in place on Monday.



In its statement, the ministry reiterated South Korea's position that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is illegal.



The ministry also said that military cooperation between Russia and North Korea should stop, describing it as a grave threat to South Korea's security and a violation of the U.N. Charter and U.N. Security Council resolutions.