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Ukraine to expel Russian embassy senior diplomat Chernikov - deputy foreign minister

A corresponding note will be sent to the Russian embassy tomorrow morning, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin says

Russian Embassy in Kiev Ivan Nikolaev/TASS

Russian Embassy in Kiev

© Ivan Nikolaev/TASS

KIEV, April 18. /TASS/. Kiev will expel a senior diplomat of the Russian embassy in Kiev in response to the expulsion of a Ukrainian consul from Russia, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin said on Sunday.

"A senior diplomat - one of the counsellors of the Russian embassy in Kiev. There is a concrete man. His name is Chernikov. A corresponding note will be sent to the Russian embassy tomorrow morning," he said in an interview with the Ukraine 24 television channel.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry announced its decision to expel a senior diplomat of the Russian embassy on Saturday.

On April 17, the Russia foreign ministry informed Ukraine’s Charge d'Affaires Vassily Pokotilo about the expulsion of Consul of Ukraine’s Consulate General to St. Petersburg Alexander Sosonyuk, who was detained on Friday by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) for obtaining classified data from the databases of Russian law enforcement agencies and the FSB.

Moscow pointed out that "those activities were inadmissible since they were incompatible with the status of a consular officer and were damaging to security interests of the Russian Federation." Sosonyuk was "declared undesirable in Russia and was recommended to leave the country within 72 hours, starting from April 19."

Under international law, diplomats enjoy diplomatic immunity in the countries where they work but can be deprived of the right of staying in the receiving state, if they breach law or commit hostile actions.

As follows from the Vienna Convention, the receiving state may at any time notify the sending state that the head of the mission or any member of the diplomatic staff of the mission is persona non grata and the diplomat's stay in the country is not acceptable.

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