Portugal Colonial - French ballet director quits Russia company over Ukraine invasion

"I resigned yesterday," he said, after the Kremlin launched an all-out assault on its pro-Western neighbour on Thursday.

"I am leaving Moscow tomorrow in view of the situation.

"I am departing with a heavy heart, but the context no longer allows me to work with peace of mind."

Hilaire was named director of dance at the Stanilavski Academic Musical Theatre five years ago, becoming only the second Frenchman to direct a ballet company in Russia in some 150 years.

He followed in the footsteps of Marius Petipa, a legendary ballet master and choreographer who directed the Saint-Petersburg Imperial Ballet in the 19th century.

Born in 1962, Hilaire has been celebrated as one of the most brilliant dancers of his generation, and was "etoile" or principal dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet for more than two decades before heading to Moscow.

He was just 22 when, in 1985, Rudolf Nureyev, a Siberia-born ballet dancer and choreographer who had defected from the Soviet Union, gave him the highest rank possible within a professional dance company.

L.Mesquita--PC