MOSCOW (AP) – Russia has ordered a Ukrainian diplomat to leave the country after allegedly receiving classified information from a database of the country’s main security service and Ukraine responded by expelling a Russian diplomat.
Alexander Sosonyuk, the Ukrainian consul in St. Petersburg, was detained on Friday during a meeting with a Russian in which he obtained material from a database of the federal security service, the service said.
On Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the charge d’affaires Vasily Pokotilo that Sosonyuk must leave the country on Thursday. No details about the content of the classified material have been disclosed.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry later said it ordered a senior diplomat to leave but failed to identify the person.
The expulsions come amid mounting tensions over Russia’s military build-up along the border with Ukraine’s eastern region, which is under the control of Russian-backed rebels.
This story has been corrected to show that the Ukrainian consul’s expulsion was announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not the Foreign Minister.