PRAGUE, April 19. /TASS/. The 18 Russian embassy staffers who were earlier declared personae non gratae by the Czech authorities have left the country on Monday, spokesperson for the Russian diplomatic mission Maria Semenova told TASS Monday.

"The eighteen Russian embassy staffers and members of their families have left the territory of the Czech Republic," she said. "They flew from Prague to Moscow at 17:00 local time."

On April 17, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis announced the expulsion of 18 employees of the Russian Embassy in Prague, who were allegedly "officers of Russian intelligence services." The move came over the ‘newly-revealed’ allegations about the 2014 blast at the ammunition depot in the village of Vrbetice. In response, Russia declared 20 staff members of the Czech Embassy in Moscow personae non gratae. Spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova later clarified that 62 Russians in total were told to leave the country - embassy staffers and their family members.

Zakharova later blasted Prague’s actions as caricature-like and said that the Czech statements were meant to overshadow reports that Russian and Belarusian security services uncovered a coup plot in Minsk in the Western information space. At the same time, acting Czech Foreign Minister Jan Hamacek’s remarks that Prague will not share information about the incident confirm that it is a fake, the Russian diplomat underlined later.