Russia expels Italian, Ukrainian diplomats, Romania expels Russian envoy

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it is expelling a military attache of the Italian Embassy in Moscow in a retaliatory measure, reported Xinhua.

Italy's Ambassador to Russia Pasquale Terracciano was invited to the ministry where he was informed that this naval attache is now "persona non grata" and must leave Russia within 24 hours.

The decision was made in response to the "unfriendly" and "groundless" expulsion of two staffers of the Russian Embassy in Rome on March 31.

In another statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that it is expelling a staffer of the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow in response to the expulsion of a Russian diplomat on April 19.

The ministry declared the diplomat "persona non grata" and asked him to leave Russia by April 30.

The ministry said it had warned the Ukrainian side that if Kiev continues "hostile actions" against staffers of Russian diplomatic and consular missions, Moscow will take additional measures to retaliate on the basis of reciprocity.

Meanwhile, the Romanian authorities have decided to declare a diplomat at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Bucharest persona non grata, a Foreign Ministry press release informed on Monday.

The diplomat is Deputy Military Attache Alexey Grishaev, whose "activities and actions contravene the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961," said the release.

The move came a few days after Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria adopted similar measures.

Grishaev has been stationed in Romania since September 2018, according to the information on the website of the Romanian Foreign Ministry.