Russia expels Polish, German diplomats in spying row

■ Moscow ‘ will not prevail’ in Ukraine, says Angela Merkel

Moscow/ Donetsk/ Sydney, Nov. 17: Russia said on Monday several of its diplomats had been expelled from Poland and that a number of Polish diplomats had left Russia after Moscow took “adequate” measures in return.

Moscow expelled a German diplomat and a number of Polish diplomats in response to the expulsion of its diplomats amid cooling ties with the EU over Ukraine.

German newsweekly Der Spiegel had reported the expulsion of a German diplomat from Moscow at the weekend, saying it came after Berlin had expelled a Russian diplomat from Russia’s consulate- general in Bonn.

A spokesman for Polish foreign minister Grzegorz Schetyna said on his Twitter microblog: “We are closing the case.”

Diplomatic sources said three Polish military attaches and one employee of the political section had left Russia on Sunday after being told to leave on Friday.

President Vladimir Putin stuck to his guns as he refused to say where Moscow- backed Ukrainian separatists receive heavy arms from and said that people fighting a just cause “will always get weapons”. “Where did they get the armoured vehicles and the artillery systems?” Mr Putin said in reply to a question from German TV network ARD in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

● Seven Ukrainian soldiers and three police officers were killed in eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours. Five other police officers were also wounded in the attack. Six soldiers died in separate incidents, officials said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday called on the West not to lose hope in what may be a long struggle with Russia over Ukraine, but vowed that the Kremlin “will not prevail”. Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March “called the whole of the European peaceful order into question, and it has continued by Russia exporting its influence to destabilise eastern Ukraine,” Ms Merkel said after attending the G20 summit in Brisbane.

Meanwhile. seven Ukrainian soldiers and three police officers were killed in eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, security officials in Kiev said on Monday. The officers were killed in shelling while out on patrol near Makarove in the Lugansk region. Five other police were also wounded in the attack. Six soldiers died in separate incidents, officials said, while nine others were also wounded. One of the injured servicemen later died in hospital from his wounds, the military said later.