British diplomats ousted from Moscow for 'espionage' as tensions mount over arming Ukraine

Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Moscow said Friday it was expelling six British diplomats for suspected espionage and "threatening Russia's security", according to reports in Russian media.

The expulsions announcement, which came as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Washington for talks with U.S. President Joe Biden focused on allowing Ukraine to use U.S-U.K. supplied weapons to attack military targets deep inside Russia, were in response to " numerous unfriendly acts, " the state-owned TASS news agency quoted the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying.

The agency, a successor of the KGB, said the diplomats' accreditation had been revoked on the basis of documentary evidence they were involved in "intelligence gathering and subversive activities" under the orders of a branch of the Foreign Office, "a special service whose main task is to inflict a strategic defeat on our country."

"The FSB has received documentary materials confirming London's coordination of the escalation of the international military-political situation.

"The said documents show that in the U.K. the main unit coordinating subversive activities in Russia's direction (and in the countries of the former USSR) is the Directorate for Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the U.K. Foreign Office, which after the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine was transformed into a special service whose main task is to inflict a strategic defeat on our country," the press office said.

It added that the actions of the unnamed diplomats -- three men and three women -- were incompatible with their diplomatic status and they would be expelled from the country while threatening that other employees of Britain's diplomatic mission caught engaging in similar activity would face the same sanction.

The Foreign Office in London said the rescinding of the diplomats' accreditation actually took place in August and roundly rejected the allegations against its staff calling them in a statement, "completely baseless".

"The Russian authorities revoked the diplomatic accreditation of 6 U.K. diplomats in Russia last month, following action taken by the U.K. government in response to Russian state-directed activity across Europe and in the U.K.," it said. "We are unapologetic about protecting our national interests."

The six had returned to Britain prior to Friday's announcement, Sky News reported, citing a source in Whitehall who played down any link to Britain's backing for Ukraine.

"They are already out," said the source who categorically denied the diplomats were engaged in spying or other activities incompatible with their status.

Russia's action, the source claimed, was more likely a fresh round of tit-for-tat ejections dating back to a 2018 nerve agent attack on British soil targeting former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia that London blames on Moscow.

The Skripals survived the Novichok poisoning but a British citizen was killed and a police officer suffered life-changing injuries.

In May, Britain and Russia threw out each other's defense attaches with Britain accusing Col. Maxim Elovikan, a former assistant military attache at the Russian Embassy in Washington prior to being posted to London in 2014, of being an "undeclared military intelligence officer".

The Russian Foreign Ministry backed Friday's expulsions saying Moscow could not allow foreigners working to damage the Russian people to remain in the country.

"We fully share the Russian Federal Security Service's assessment of the activities of the so-called British diplomats," spokesperson Maria Zakharova told TASS.

"The U.K. embassy went far beyond the limits set by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. But the most important thing is that we are talking not only about the formal side of the issue and the non-compliance with the declared activities but about such actions aimed at harming our people," she pointed out.

The diplomatic spat between Moscow and London came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the launching of Western-supplied missiles into Russia would constitute a major escalation that could only be seen as NATO countries, the United States and Europe, " participating directly " in the war in Ukraine.

"It is their direct participation. And, of course, this substantially changes the very essence, the nature of the conflict," Putin said. "If that is the case, we will take corresponding decisions based on the threats that will be created to us."

Speaking to reporters aboard his aircraft above the Atlantic late Thursday, Starmer dismissed Putin's comments saying Ukraine had the right to defend itself against Russia's illegal invasion and that Moscow "can end this conflict straight away," but stressed that he did not want military confrontation with Russia.