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Russia has expelled six UK diplomats over spying accusations, the country’s FSB security service said in a statement on Friday.
The FSB claimed that it had documents showing that the UK Foreign Office department responsible for eastern Europe and central Asia is involved in the “co-ordination of escalation of international military-political situation” aimed at the “strategic defeat” of Russia.
The accreditation of the diplomats whose actions showed “signs of reconnaissance and subversive work” is to be revoked, the FSB said.
The UK Foreign Office did not immediately comment on the Russian move, whose timing will be seen in London as a diplomatic warning shot by President Vladimir Putin.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is in Washington for talks with President Joe Biden on Friday to discuss western support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Top of the agenda will be whether to allow Ukraine to use western-made weapons for strikes deep inside Russia, after Putin warned that such a move could unleash a war with Nato. Britain has supported the use of such weapons but requires US approval.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been lobbying western allies for permission to use the Army Tactical Missile System and Storm Shadow cruise missiles on targets inside Russia.
