MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. The departure of 28 Russian diplomats from the US by June 30 will cause a major blow to the functioning of the Russian diplomatic mission, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said.

"Indeed, it will be a major blow for us. These 28 Russian mission employees are both diplomats and administrative and technical staff. It's hard to even imagine what will happen after June 30," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

In addition, Antonov noted that the US is not really ready to consider candidates for Russian diplomats to replace those expelled from the country. "The Americans used to tell us that they were ready to consider candidates who would come to replace our colleagues. In reality, none of this is happening," the diplomat added.

According to the ambassador, the Americans are not even considering Russian proposals for resolving visa issues. "We gave a lot of suggestions to our colleagues to do a visa exchange that would improve the situation of my colleague, American Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan. However, the Americans have not considered any of our proposals at all lately, and it is difficult to imagine what will happen next," Antonov concluded.