Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has confirmed that Russia will expel 13 Ukrainian diplomats after Kyiv has expelled the same number of Russians with diplomatic status. “Russia’s ‘mirror reaction’ by expelling our diplomats is nonsense. We did not try to poison anyone in Salisbury. Russia did it and was confronted by the entire civilised world. We have those who will takw care of Ukrainian nationals in Russia. We are going on,” he tweeted.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced “mirror measures” to the ambassadors of Australia, Albania, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Finland, France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Estonia.
Moscow added that it reserved the right to extend sanctions to any other countries which might expel its diplomats in response to the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the British town of Salisbury. London said it was highly likely that the Russian special services were behind the attack which involved the use of a nerve agent.