An employee of the Russian Embassy to Lithuania was on Thursday declared a persona non grata, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said.
An embassy representative was summoned to the Foreign Ministry where he was handed a diplomatic note declaring an employee of Russia’s Embassy persona non grata in Lithuania “for activities incompatible with his diplomatic status”.
The employee of the Russian Embassy was ordered to leave the country within five days, according to the ministry’s statement.
It is the fourth time that Russian diplomats are sent out of Lithuania since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In March, Lithuanian sent four Russian diplomats out “in solidarity with Ukraine, which has been facing the unprecedented Russian military aggression”, the ministry said.
In response to the massacre in Kyiv’s suburb of Buch in April, the Lithuanian government decided to downgrade the diplomatic representation ties with Russia and ordered Russian Ambassador Alexey Isakov to leave the country. The decision was also made to close Russia’s consulate in Klaipėda.
In October, Lithuania expelled Sergey Ryabokon, Russia’s chargé d’affaires ad interim, for actions and statements incompatible with his status as a diplomat.
Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomėnas told reporters at the time the decision was made in response to the diplomat’s statements diminishing the January 13t, 1991 events.
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