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Czech ambassador arrives to Russian foreign ministry

Vitezslav Pivonka entered the ministry’s building, giving no comments to journalists

MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. Czech Ambassador to Russia Vitezslav Pivonka has arrived to the Russian foreign ministry, a TASS correspondent reported from the site.

The Czech diplomat entered the ministry’s building, giving no comments to journalists.

A well-informed source told TASS earlier the Czech ambassador would be summoned to the Russian foreign ministry.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and First Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hamacek on Saturday announced the expulsion of 18 employees of the Russian embassy in Prague, who were allegedly "officers of Russian special services."

The move came in the context of the newly leveled circumstance of the 2014 blast at the ammunition depot in the village of Vrbetice. According to reports, "officers of Russia’s military intelligence" were allegedly involved in this incident.

The Russian foreign ministry expressed resolute protest over this step taken "under invented and ungrounded pretexts" and vowed response measures would follow. The ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova said earlier in the day that Moscow would soon announce concrete response steps.