The Russian Federation has declared an employee of Ukraine's Consulate General in St. Petersburg persona non grata.
The Russian Foreign Ministry told the Russian news agency TASS that in May Ukraine declared an employee of the Russian Consulate General in Lviv persona non grata.
"In response to such an unfriendly and groundless move by Kyiv, the Russian side was forced, on a reciprocal basis, to declare an employee of the Consulate General of Ukraine in St. Petersburg persona non grata," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Read alsoRussian spy exposed in Lviv region
As UNIAN reported earlier, counterintelligence officers of the SBU Security Service of Ukraine have exposed a Ukrainian national, resident of Lviv region, who is believed to have been spying for Russia. A retired military officer, now head of an NGO, was recruited by Russian intelligence in 2014.
On the instructions of his Russian supervisors, he gathered intelligence on political and public figures, units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, special and law enforcement agencies, foreign military instructors working in the western region of Ukraine.
He transferred the information collected to a Russian intelligence officer who operated under the diplomatic cover at the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in the city of Lviv.
For the activities incompatible with the status of a consular officer, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared the diplomat in question persona non grata. He has already left the territory of Ukraine.
