Austria's government said Thursday that it has ordered four Russian diplomats based in Vienna, including two at Moscow's mission to U.N. agencies in the city, to leave the country.
The Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement that two diplomats at the Russian Embassy had "engaged in acts incompatible with their diplomatic status" and two at the permanent mission to the United Nations in Vienna "committed acts incompatible with the Headquarters Agreement." It didn't elaborate.Western European nations and Russia have expelled each others' diplomats on several occasions since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine started nearly a year ago.
An Austrian official with knowledge of the matter said that the diplomats currently being expelled are "higher ranking" than the ones who were sent back in April and had been involved in "technical intelligence gathering to the detriment of Austrian national security." Austria has given aid to Ukraine but not military equipment. President Alexander Van der Bellen was in Kyiv on Wednesday on a trip meant to underline Austria's solidarity.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it would respond in kind to the diplomats' expulsion, according to state news agency Tass.
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