US 'kicks out' 27 Russian diplomats from embassies as tensions mount over Ukraine

Tensions escalated between the United States and Moscow once again on Thursday, Jan. 27 after the US State Department asked over 27 Russian diplomats to leave the country immediately due to the ongoing fears of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The footage was shared by the Russian Embassy in the US, which showed the Russian envoys departing Washington, waving goodbye, and hugging friends and colleagues as they boarded a bus. The US had announced last month that it will expel 27 Russian diplomats and their families from the United States on January 30, 2022, in a move to counter Russia’s belligerence. 

'Our diplomats are being kicked out..': Russian ambassador

Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov had informed the state-affiliated news outlets that the US is planning to expel close to 27 Russian diplomats on January 30, 2022, and a similar number of Russian diplomatic staff will leave on June 30. "Our diplomats are being kicked out. On January 30, a large group of my fellow diplomats, 27 people, and their families, are leaving us," the ambassador said."On June 30, a similar number will leave," he had further added. 

As the Russians moved out of the United States on Jan. 27, Ambassador Antoly Antonov told the reporters: “Today is a very bitter event at our embassy,” according to the translation of his broadcast remarks. “Some of them — 27 people — were supposed to leave and are leaving by Jan. 30. The fact that they were being expelled … was not mentioned. But it was said that if these people did not leave, then the next day [after the deadline] they would lose their diplomatic privileges and will be arrested,” the Russian ambassador said in his remarks, as translated from a video posted by the Russian embassy. 

“Our [Russian] comrades were forced, at the request of the Americans, to leave earlier than the period for which they came here,” said Russian Ambassador Antoly Antonov in the visuals posted by the embassy of Russia in the US on Facebook.

“Back in September, we were invited to the State Department and given a list of 55 people,” Antonov said, adding that more than 50 diplomats and their families had to leave the US, and the latter cited their ‘expiring visas’ as the reason. United States expulsion of Russian envoys comes at a sensitive time when Russia and Ukraine are edging closer to an armed conflict. 

Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign ministry responded to the US expulsion of the Russians by ordering US staffers at Washington’s Embassy in Moscow to leave by the end of this month. The differences have cropped up between Russia and the United States over the issue of Ukraine. The US has already dispatched  $200 million worth of military aid to Ukraine, and the Biden administration has put 8,500 troops on “heightened alert.”