Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 30 summoned diplomats from all 23 countries, including Ukraine, that expelled Russian diplomats from their countries on March 26.
Russia gave them protest notes and, for each county, named the same number of diplomats persona non grata in Russia “in response to the groundless demands of these states for the expulsion of Russian diplomatic staff on the basis of U.K.’s unproven allegations … (concerning) the Skripal Case,” the Russian ministry stated on March 30.
Thirteen Ukrainian diplomats are to leave Russia.
The Skripal Case is an investigation started by the United Kingdom after the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergey Skripal and his daughter with a military-grade nerve agent called Novichok in southern England, which happened on March 4.
Although Russian denies any role in the poisoning, European Union leaders agreed last week it was highly likely Russia was behind the poisoning. In an interview with the BBC, U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the U.K. has evidence that “within the last 10 years Russia has not only been investigating the delivery of nerve agents for the purposes of assassination, but has also been creating and stockpiling Novichok.”
This led to 26 countries and NATO expelling a total of 150 Russian diplomats on March 26.
Now Russia is expelling the same amount of diplomats.
Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin tweeted that he couldn’t believe Russia was doing it and name these actions “nonsense.”
“It wasn’t us who attempted to poison (a former Russian spy) in Salisbury,” he said. “Russia did it, and got a response of the entire civilized world.”
Symmetrical response of #Russia with the expulsion of Ukrainian diplomats is a nonsense. We did not try to poison anyone in Salisbury. Russia did it and got the response of the entire civilized world.
— Pavlo Klimkin (@PavloKlimkin) March 30, 2018
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a response, saying that Russia’s actions “mean that its government is living in a world of illusions, and continues to isolate itself from the civilized world.”
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mariana Betsa told the Kyiv Post the diplomats have 48 hours to leave Russia. Betsa also said the ministry has evidence that the Russian diplomats were all “intelligence agents.”
