EU allies expel more than 120 Russian diplomats in two days

ROME: Italy, Denmark and Sweden on Tuesday joined EU allies in expelling Russian diplomats over the war in Ukraine, with more than 120 sent packing in the last 48 hours.

The expulsions come amid international outrage over killings in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, where dozens of bodies were found over the weekend in mass graves or littering the streets.

“We have expelled 30 Russian diplomats for national security reasons,” Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Miao told Italy’s Rai television in Berlin, in news confirmed by the ministry in Rome.

He said Russia’s ambassador to Italy, Sergey Razov, had been summoned earlier Tuesday “to notify him of the Italian government’s decision to expel” the diplomats “as ‘personae non grata’”.

Denmark earlier said it was expelling 15 Russian “intelligence officers” accused of spying on its territory.

The government condemned what it called “Russia’s brutality against Ukrainian civilians in Bucha”.

“Deliberate attacks against civilians are a war crime,” it said.

Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said diplomatic ties would remain with Moscow, and “the Russian ambassador and the rest of the embassy in Copenhagen are therefore not included in the expulsion”.

Shortly afterwards, Sweden’s foreign ministry announced it was expelling three Russian diplomats who conducted “illegal operations” there.

“Today the foreign ministry has decided to expel three Russian diplomats who are not working in Sweden in concordance with the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations,” Foreign Minister Ann Linde said.

The announcements follow similar moves by EU allies France, which on Monday expelled 35 Russian diplomats, and Germany, where officials said 40 diplomats had been sent home.

According to an AFP count, European Union countries have expelled more than 230 Russian diplomats since Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Russia said on March 29 it was expelling 10 diplomats from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in a tit-for-tat move.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said Tuesday it was “clear that this is a pre-coordinated campaign” and that Moscow “will of course take retaliatory measures”.

— AFP photo The wreckage of a car is seen at the central square of Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv. The Russian retreat last week has left clues of the battle waged to keep a grip on Borodianka. Nothing is where it should be. The details of devastation are infinite, the scale overwhelming. Some homes are simply no longer there.