MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/: The Embassy and Consulates General of Russia in Ukraine are functioning smoothly, despite attacks from Ukrainian radicals and provocations from Ukrainian security forces, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel on Tuesday.
"The Embassy and Consulates General of Russia work in a routine mode. They do it despite attacks on Russian foreign missions from Ukrainian radicals and provocations from local security forces," she said.
Zakharova added that Russian diplomats in Ukraine and their families, as well as employees of Russia’s foreign missions, receive individual threats. Notes of protests about all this are regularly sent to the Ukrainian side. "One of the recent examples — an attack on Consulate General of Russia in Lviv with the use of Molotov cocktails," the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman recalled.
Commenting on the article by the New York Times about the alleged evacuation of Russian diplomats from the embassy in Ukraine, Zakharova stressed that the US newspaper did not ask the Russian foreign ministry for comment. "If the American newspaper addressed us for a comment, it would know what was going on. But then the interest in publishing the article is likely to be lost altogether," she concluded.
Earlier, the New York Times reported that the evacuation of Russian diplomats from the embassy in Ukraine had started. Commenting on this information, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Russian embassy in Ukraine was operating as usual. Later, the Russian Embassy in Ukraine said that employees of all diplomatic missions of Russia in the country continue to work in a routine mode.
