Europe expels diplomats; Russia warns of worsening ties

Tensions between Russia and Europe over the Ukraine crisis take a new turn with Europe announcing the expulsion of Russian diplomats and Moscow warning the move will worsen ties.

According to Press TV, Denmark said on Tuesday it will expel 15 Russian diplomats, in line with steps taken by other European Union countries, after reports of mass graves being found and of civilian killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.

Italy has expelled 30 Russian diplomats because of security concerns, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said. Italy summoned Russia's ambassador to the foreign ministry to tell him that the diplomats were being expelled.

The move comes after several other European Union countries including France and Germany on Monday said they would expel Russian diplomats.

Moscow, which claims images of executed civilians in Bucha were fake products of Ukrainian and Western propaganda aimed at discrediting Russia, said it would retaliate for the expulsion, RIA Novosti reported.

The Danish foreign ministry said that it did not want to cut diplomatic ties to Moscow and that the Russian ambassador and the rest of the embassy were not part of the expulsion.

Berlin did not specify the number of diplomats, but the Russian embassy in Berlin said that 40 members of Russian diplomatic missions in Germany had been told to leave the country.

Russia decried the German decision as "unfriendly", warning that it would worsen ties.

“The unfounded reduction in the number of diplomatic staff at Russian missions in Germany will narrow the space for maintaining dialogue between our countries, which will lead to a further deterioration in Russian-German relations,” the embassy said in a statement posted on Telegram.

US, Europe to hit Russia with new sanctions

US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said fresh sanctions would be announced this week against Moscow.

He told reporters that discussions about sanctions with European allies include "options that relate to energy."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Western allies would agree on further sanctions against Moscow in the coming days.

France's European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said the European Union will most likely adopt a new round of sanctions on Wednesday.

The EU’s new sanctions would reportedly not see a ban on Russian gas imports to the European Union, with German Finance Minister Christian Lindner saying such a move would harm it more than Moscow.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell will travel to Kiev this week for a meeting with Ukrainian

‘Russia mulling full-scale attack in east Ukraine’

Sergiy Gaiday, governor of the breakaway Lugansk region in eastern Ukraine, said Russian forces were preparing for a full-scale attack in the region.

“We see that equipment is coming from different directions, they are bringing manpower, they are bringing fuel,” Gaiday said. “We understand that they are preparing for a full-scale big breakthrough.”

His remarks came after the Pentagon said Russia had removed about two-thirds of the troops it had around the capital Kiev and was planning to redeploy them elsewhere in Ukraine.

Russia has said it would focus its military efforts on the southeast Donbas region.

“Russia is repositioning its forces to concentrate its offensive operations in eastern and parts of southern Ukraine,” the White House said.

Sullivan said the next phase of the Russian military operation in Ukraine could last “months or longer”.

Chinese, Ukrainian FMs hold talks

China and Ukraine's foreign ministers spoke for the first time in over a month, with Beijing maintaining its push for peace talks.

Monday's phone call between Wang Yi and Ukraine's Dmytro Kuleba was the first reported high-level talks between the two nations since March 1, whereas Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited China last week for a series of meetings.

During the call, which Beijing said was made at Kiev's request, Wang said China's "basic attitude towards the Ukraine issue is to promote peace talks", according to a Chinese foreign ministry readout.

"The war will someday end, and the key is how to learn from this painful experience to properly uphold lasting security in Europe," Wang said.

He added that Beijing believed in the establishment of a "balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism" based on "equal dialogue" and "the principle of indivisibility of security".

"China is willing to take an objective and fair position to continue playing a constructive role in its own way," Wang said.

Kuleba tweeted on Monday that he was "grateful to my Chinese counterpart for solidarity with civilian victims".

SS