ST. PETERSBURG — Russia on Saturday said it would expel a Ukrainian diplomat, prompting an immediate pledge of retaliation from Kiev, further escalating tensions over Moscow’s troop build-up on Ukraine’s eastern flank.
The detention of a Ukrainian consul in the second city Saint Petersburg comes at a time of global concern of a repeat of Moscow’s 2014 aggression, when Russia annexed the peninsula of Crimea and backed separatists in Ukraine’s east.
Moscow claimed the Ukrainian diplomat had been caught “red-handed” trying to obtain sensitive information.
In response, the Ukrainian foreign ministry protested “the illegal” detention of its diplomat and said Kiev would expel a seni…
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