PARIS (Reuters) – France will expel “many” Russians with diplomatic status, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday, as European Union countries consider new sanctions against Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.
According to the Quai d’Orsay, which specifies that “this action is part of a European approach”, the activities of the diplomats targeted by these measures are contrary to the security interests of France.
A diplomatic source told Reuters that 35 people were targeted by the measure.
Germany had announced a little earlier that it had qualified as “persona non grata” a “significant” number of members of the Russian embassy.
“The images that reach us from Boutcha testify to an incredible brutality coming from the Russian camp,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
“The federal government has therefore decided today to declare undesirable a significant number of members of the Russian embassy who worked every day here in Germany against our freedoms, against the cohesion of our society,” she continued.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, quoted by Interfax, announced that Russia would respond to these French and German initiatives.
(Written by Nicolas Delame, with John Irish in Paris, Paul Carrel and Thomas Escritt in Berlin)
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