US and EU expel scores of Russian diplomats over Skripal attack

US and EU expel scores of Russian diplomats over Skripal attack

US orders expulsion of 60 officials as 14 EU member states plus Ukraine announce coordinated response to nerve agent poisoning

Julian Borger and Patrick Wintour

Mon 26 Mar 2018 

The US and EU have expelled dozens of Russian diplomats in response to the nerve agent attack in the UK.

Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with the nerve agent novichok in Salisbury. Photograph: web

The US has ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian officials who Washington says are spies, including a dozen based at the United Nations.

EU members Germany, France and Poland are each to expel four Russian diplomats with intelligence agency backgrounds. Lithuania and the Czech Republic said they would expel three with Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands expelling two each.

Ukraine, which is not an EU member, is to expel 13 Russian diplomats and Canada four.

The UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats in the wake of the poisoning, and Russia responded by ejecting the same number of British diplomats.

Russia promised it would take reciprocal action against Washington. It said the UK had not presented a single fact proving that Moscow was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

The Russian consulate in Seattle is also being closed as part of the US’s package of punitive measures. A senior US official said that the consulate closure and the expulsions would be carried out “in solidarity with our closest allies” in reaction to what he said was “a reckless attempt by the [Russian] government to murder a British citizen and his daughter with a military grade nerve agent”.

A second official said the measures were also intended as a response to a “steady drumbeat of destabilising and aggressive actions” by Moscow against the US and its allies.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/26/four-eu-states-set-to-expel-russian-diplomats-over-skripal-attack

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