Italy announced the expulsion of 30 Russian diplomats
Earlier, Denmark, France and Germany announced the expulsion of diplomats. In March, Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia expelled Russian diplomats ” alt=”Italy announced the expulsion of 30 Russian diplomats” />
View of the building of the Russian Embassy in Rome
Italy will expel 30 Russian diplomats “for reasons of national security”. This was announced by the Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, whose words are quoted by Corriere della Sera.
“On my instructions, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ettore Sekui, met this morning with the Russian Ambassador to Italy, Sergei Razov, to inform him of the decision of the Italian government to expel 30 Russian diplomats, declaring them persona non grata. This measure, taken in consultation with our partners, was necessary for reasons related to our national security, — said the minister, who is visiting Germany.
After the announcement of the head of the Italian Foreign Ministry, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, promised that Moscow would respond to this. “On the expulsion of [diplomats] from Italy, Russia will give an appropriate answer,” — quotes the words of Zakharova TASS.
On Tuesday, April 5, Denmark announced its intention to expel 15 Russian diplomats. Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod called the expulsion a “historic step” and stated that the country's authorities had decided to expel the diplomats to “protect security in Denmark.” Zakharova also promised to take appropriate action against the Danish diplomats in Moscow.
The day before, on April 4, France and Germany announced the expulsion of employees of the Russian embassies. The French Foreign Ministry has not yet announced exactly how many diplomats will be expelled, but the BFMTV channel believes that this measure will affect 30 Russians. Le Parisien, citing sources, wrote that 35 diplomats would be expelled. The newspaper Le Figaro also called the last figure, citing a source.
In Paris, it was clarified that the decision was made within the framework of a single European approach. Maria Zakharova promised to give a “worthy answer” to this.
On Tuesday, BFMTV reported that the French Foreign Ministry had summoned Russian Ambassador Alexei Meshkov to notify of the expulsion of diplomats.
The German Foreign Ministry said 40 diplomats would be expelled from the country. According to German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock, we are talking about diplomats “who worked every day here in Germany against our freedom, against the cohesion of our society.” Burbock clarified that Berlin made this decision after the appearance of photos from the city of Buchav, Kiev region.
Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechaev declared “categorical rejection of Berlin's one-sided accusations” made without an independent investigation into the events in Bucha.
April 2 Ukrainian authorities and Western media , including Reuters and AFP, published photographs from Bucha showing corpses lying on the streets. The Russian Defense Ministry called the footage a provocation and stated that the Russian military was not involved in the killings of civilians. The ministry stressed that while the city was under the control of the Russian military, “not a single local resident was harmed.”
In March, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovakia decided to expel Russian diplomats. Poland expelled the largest number of Russian diplomats— 45 members of the mission left the country. Moscow responded by announcing mirror measures against European diplomats.