MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. A sizeable part of Russian diplomats expelled from Britain will leave the country next week, Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko told the Rossiya 24 television on Friday.

"A considerable part of people is leaving for Moscow next week," he said. Yakovenko noted that the expelled diplomats were involved in the work of the election commission at the upcoming Russian presidential election, but this fact will not affect the voting. "Many of those who are due to leave for Moscow next week were involved in the election commission. We’ve promptly replaced them," he promised.

"For those people who will come, everything will be as usual, everything will run like clockwork. We have already held early voting in Northern Ireland. We will have a separate polling station in Edinburgh and, of course, in the embassy here. The commission itself includes 43 people," he stressed.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May earlier accused Russia of "an unlawful use of force" against her country following the poisoning of former Russian military intelligence Colonel Sergey Skripal convicted in Russia of spying for Britain and his daughter Yulia. She announced that London would expel 23 Russian diplomats and take other measures against Moscow. Russia has vehemently denied its involvement in the incident and said retaliatory measures would follow soon.