Ukraine expelled a Russian consul from Odesa and declared him persona non grata, ordering him to leave before April 30.
According to the foreign ministry, this was a response to Russia’s expulsion of a Ukrainian consul from Moscow earlier on April 26.
“We consider such a step as a continuation of the anti-Ukrainian campaign launched in the Russian Federation and another manifestation of unfriendly actions against employees of diplomatic missions of Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine and Russia each expelled two top diplomats in April. It happened amid the tensions created by Russian military buildup near Ukraine’s border.
On April 16, Russian authorities arrested a Ukrainian consul Oleksandr Sosoniuk in Saint-Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city some 700 kilometers northwest of Moscow.
Local authorities claimed Sosoniuk was obtaining classified information from databases of Russian law enforcement agencies, collecting data about Ukrainians who hold Russian passports. Sosoniuk rejected the accusations and returned to Ukraine on April 21.
In response, Ukraine ordered a senior diplomat of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv to leave the country within 72 hours, before April 21.
Shortly after, Russia expelled a Ukrainian consul from Moscow. Ukraine responded by sending out a Russian consul in Odesa.
“The work of Ukrainian diplomats in Russia, in fact on the territory of the aggressor state, is full of numerous challenges,” the spokesperson of Ukraine’s foreign ministry Oleg Nikolenko told news outlet Hromadske on April 22.
Nikolenko also added that Ukrainian diplomats work “under conditions of increased pressure and permanent threat of provocations”.
Earlier, on April 17, Czech Republic announced the expulsion of 18 Russian Embassy staffers. According to the Czech Foreign Minister, they were officers of the Russian top intelligence agencies. The country’s foreign affairs and interior ministries said they found evidence that Russian operatives were behind a 2014 explosion at an ammunition depot in the town of Vrbetice, which killed two people.
Russia responded by expelling 20 staffers of the Czech embassy in Moscow.
Slovakia, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, and Litva expelled some Russian diplomats from their countries in solidarity with the Czech Republic.
