Senior diplomat of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv Yevgeny Chernikov, who was declared persona non grata in Ukraine, has left the country.
This was reported by the Russian media outlet RBC with reference to the Russian news agency TASS.
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"The Russian diplomat, who has been declared persona non grata by the Ukrainian side, has left the country," the Russian embassy was quoted as saying.
On April 19, 2021, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a note under which one of advisers working for the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Kyiv was declared persona non grata over activities incompatible with his diplomatic status.
He was given 72 hours to leave the territory of Ukraine.
This was the Ukrainian side's response to a provocation organized by the Russian FSB against a Ukrainian consul in St. Petersburg, Oleksandr Sosoniuk.
Detention of Ukrainian Consul in St. Petersburg: Developments
- On April 16, 2021, FSB officers detained Consul General of Ukraine in St. Petersburg Oleksandr Sosoniuk.
- The secret service claimed that Sosoniuk had allegedly tried to obtain confidential information contained in Russian law enforcement agencies' databases.
- The agency stressed that such activities were incompatible with diplomatic status and are "clearly hostile to the Russian Federation."
- The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expressed outrage at the incident.
- It later became known that Russia was expelling the Ukrainian consul detained in St. Petersburg.
- Meanwhile, Ukraine decided to take a retaliatory measure to expel a Russian diplomat from Kyiv in response to the provocation in St. Petersburg.
