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Romania expels 10 Russian embassy employees — MFA

Russian Ambassador to Romania Valery Kuzmin told TASS the embassy employees were given five days to leave the country

MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Romania is expelling 10 employees of the Russian embassy in Bucharest, the Romanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on its website on Tuesday.

"The Romanian government decided to declare 10 people working in the Russian Embassy in Bucharest as personae non gratae on Romanian territory, believing that their activities run contrary to the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961," the statement said.

Russian Ambassador to Romania Valery Kuzmin told TASS the embassy employees were given five days to leave the country. He called the decision an "unfriendly step" and assured Russia will retaliate.

Western countries have expelled a total of more than 300 Russian diplomats since the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine.

On February 24 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aims to demilitarize and de-Nazify the country. The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure.

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