The Czech Republic has reopened its consulate general in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, two months after it was closed in response to Russia's military operation.
"The consulate will initially operate with a limited capacity, and will not issue visas, but will provide assistance to Czech citizens, and will monitor the situation," the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted.
Czech announced that it intends to return its diplomats to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, after the closure of its embassy on the 24th of last February, against the backdrop of the Russian military operation.
In a press statement, Czech Foreign Minister (FM) Jan Lebavsky stressed his country’s desire to support Kyiv diplomatically and to be present in the Ukrainian capital.
He pointed out that his officials are intensively interested in this matter and hope to reopen the Czech embassy in (Kyiv) soon.
Last week, Austria joined the list of Western countries that declared Russian diplomats working in their territory persona non grata recently.
The Austrian Foreign Ministry decided to expel three diplomats working at Russia’s embassy and one based in Salzburg as they must leave Austria by Tuesday.
The ministry stated that the declaration of those diplomats’ persona non grata comes under Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, claiming that they practice activities “contrary to their diplomatic status”, and asked them to leave the country on April 12.
On the other hand, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pledged that Moscow would “respond appropriately” to this Austrian measure.
The United States, the European Union (EU), and its member states recently decided to deport about 300 Russian diplomats over Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.
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