Czech Charge d'Affaires to Ukraine Vitezslav Pivonka on Friday was invited to Ukraine's Foreign Ministry, where a note declaring two employees of military attaché's office of the Czech Republic in Kyiv personae non gratae was handed to him.
The Foreign Ministry stated that the activity of these persons on gathering information that is a state secret in Ukraine is incompatible with their diplomatic status, the press service of the Ukrainian foreign ministry reported on Friday.
"A firm protest against the use of diplomatic status to gather information that is a state secret in Ukraine was made to the leadership of the Czech diplomatic mission. It was pointed out that, for Ukraine, such actions are inadmissible from any state," reads a report.
At the same time, the diplomats said that for Ukraine the development of friendly mutually beneficial relations with the Czech Republic is an important priority, and Kyiv hopes that in future mutual relations would not be affected by such incidents.
A source of the Ukrainska Pravda Internet publication in the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that the decision to expel the diplomats was taken at the request of the Ukrainian Security Service.
"This is nothing to do with politics. These are military attaches. These are honest military people; they are career diplomats. They just use diplomatic immunity," he said.
When asked what kind of information the Czechs had gathered, the source said the information was related to aviation. According to the Ukrainska Pravda, these two persons are Defense Attache of the Czech Embassy in Ukraine Colonel Zdenek Kubicek and Defense Attache of the Czech Embassy in Ukraine Major Petra Novotna.
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