On the same day more Russians received sanctions for the country’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States announced the expulsion of 12 diplomats from the Russian Mission to the United Nations. According to a statement from a spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the U.N., the 12 “have abused their privileges of residency in the United States by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security.”
“We are taking this action in accordance with the UN Headquarters Agreement. This action has been in development for several months,” spokesperson Olivia Dalton said in the Monday statement.
While the expulsions were seemingly unrelated to the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N. found out about it as he briefed reporters on the invasion at U.N. headquarters. He had to briefly pause the briefing so he could take a phone call with the news. The video above shows his reaction to the news.
“Just received information that the U.S. authorities have undertaken another hostile action against the Russian mission to the United States, to the United Nations, grossly violating their commitments on the host country agreement that they undertook, telling us that they are announcing 12 people from the personnel of the Russian mission ‘persona non grata,’ and demanding that they will leave by the 7th of March,” Vassily Nebenzia said. “This is sad news.”
The Russian diplomats’ expulsions come as the European Union used sanctions to further turn up the economic heat on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The bloc announced Monday it has sanctioned 26 more Russians, including oligarchs and senior Kremlin officials, as well as one energy company.
“With these additional sanctions, we are targeting all who are having a significant economic role in supporting Putin’s regime, and benefit financially from the system. These sanctions will expose the wealth of Putin’s elite,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement. “Those who enable the invasion of Ukraine will pay a price for their action.”
The EU said it has now sanctioned 680 Russians and 53 Russian entities. Those entities consist mostly of organizations, agencies, banks or companies.