Russia has officially informed the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry that it may expel the Ukrainian consul general in St. Petersburg and a councilor at the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow, and the ministry is currently studying this information, Acting Foreign Minister Yuriy Kostenko has said.
“We already have official information, and we’ll study and analyze it,” he told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.
Kostenko said that Ukraine had expelled Russian diplomats due to their violating the Vienna Convention of 1961. Russia, on the other hand, has failed to provide Ukraine evidence of any such violations committed by Ukrainian diplomats.
“We have no information about that. There are no accusations in the information we’ve got. As always happens in diplomatic practice, this is like an answer without any explanation,” Kostenko said.
He also said that transparency, mutual understanding, and mutually beneficial relations were priorities for Ukraine in its relations with Russia.
“Therefore, certain steps [by Ukraine] are being taken, and I hope these steps will result in a respective response, i.e. the actions of Russian diplomats in Ukraine will be brought in line with the clauses followed by Ukrainian diplomats in Moscow, as happens around the world,” Kostenko said.
As reported, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry demanded that a councilor at the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, Vladimir Lysenko, in charge of the Black Sea Fleet issues, leave Ukraine before July 29.
According to Ukrainian sources, Lysenko, who is ending his diplomatic mission in Ukraine, will not be declared a persona non-grata. The councilor left Kyiv on Tuesday, July 28. He also declined to comment on the reasons for his departure.
It was also reported that the Ukrainian government had allegedly demanded the expulsion of the Russian consul general in Odesa, Alexander Grachev.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, in turn, said the Ukrainian ambassador in Moscow, Kostiantyn Hryschenko, had been given “an account in connection with the unfriendly actions of the Ukrainian government in relation to two Russian diplomatic envoys in Ukraine, – the consul general in Odesa and a senior councilor at the Russian Embassy, – who have been told to finish their postings in Ukraine.”
“Despite the fact that the Ukrainian side has ‘suspended’ its decision concerning the Russian consul general, the Russian side assesses Kyiv’s act as an openly anti-Russian move that is damaging to relations between Russia and Ukraine,” the ministry said.
“The Ukrainian ambassador was told that the Russian side proposes that the Ukrainian side recall the Ukrainian consul general in St. Petersburg and one of the counselors at the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow before their postings officially expire. The Russian side will also suspend its decision concerning the Ukrainian consul general in St. Petersburg in conformity with the principle of reciprocity,” the ministry said.
