MOSCOW 

Russia on Tuesday declared four Austrian diplomats persona non grata, ordering them to leave the country by the end of April 24. 

The move was in response to Austria’s expulsion of four Russian diplomats on April 7, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Such an “unfriendly step seriously damages both bilateral relations and Austria’s international prestige,” read a ministry statement.

As the tit-for-tat diplomatic fallout from the Ukraine war shows no signs of ending, Russia earlier on Tuesday declared 15 Dutch diplomats and an unspecified number of Belgian diplomats persona non grata.

The Foreign Ministry said 14 employees of the Dutch Embassy in Moscow and one employee of the Dutch Consulate in St. Petersburg must leave Russia within two days.

The decision was taken in response to the expulsion on March 29 of 18 employees of the Russian Embassy in The Hague, the Russian Trade Mission in Amsterdam, and Russia’s mission to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the ministry said in a statement.

In a separate statement, the ministry said Belgian diplomats have been given until the end of May 3 to leave Russia.

Both the Netherlands and Belgium had expelled diplomats on allegations of spying, as relations between Moscow and the European Union further deteriorated over Russia’s war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24.

The war has led to thousands of deaths, millions of people being displaced, and a broad range of sanctions on Russia, in particular by the EU and US.​​​​​​​