Ukraine War: Russia Expels 10 Romanian Diplomats

President Putin

Ten Romanian diplomats have been expelled by the Russian government on Friday, in a similar response to expulsions by Bucharest.

Moscow’s foreign ministry added that it declined Romanian attempts to blame Russia for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

In a separate statement, the ministry also said that a member of the Bulgarian embassy was also being expelled.

The moves were part of a series of tit-for-tat expulsions by Russia after more than 300 of its diplomats were kicked out of European capitals in the wake of its military campaign in Ukraine, NAN reports.

Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into its neighbour on Feb. 24 in what it called a special operation to degrade Kyiv’s military capabilities and root out “fascism”.

Ukraine denied posing a threat to Russia and said the fascism allegation was
a baseless pretext for unprovoked aggression.

Its forces had mounted stiff resistance and Western countries had imposed sweeping sanctions in an effort to force Russia to withdraw.