Ukraine took a combative role as on March 26 it joined with European Union member states and the US in the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.

While Washington led the line by throwing out 60 Russian diplomats, Kyiv said it was expelling 13, far more than any of the other 19 countries who along with the US and Ukraine staged an act of solidarity in response to the nerve-agent poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK.

"Responding to the cynical chemical attack in Salisbury, acting in a spirit of solidarity with our British partners and transatlantic allies and in coordination with the EU countries, Ukraine has decided to expel 13 of the few remaining Russian diplomats from Ukrainian territory, even considering that, as is well known, our diplomatic relations with Russia have de facto been frozen," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wrote in a statement posted on his Facebook page on March 26.

Of the EU countries, the expulsions are as follows: France (4); Germany (4); Poland (4); Czech Republic (3); Lithuania (3); Denmark (2); Netherlands (2); Italy (2); Spain (2); Estonia (1); Croatia (1); Finland (1); Hungary (1); Latvia (1); Romania (1); Sweden (1). Canada is to expel four diplomats, and turn down applications to take posts in the country from three others, Albania is kicking out two and Norway one.

Following the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, who both remain in a stable but critical condition in hospital, the UK determined that the Soviet-era nerve agent used, novichok, had either been used in an attack authorised by the Russian state or had been allowed to fall into other hands. With Russia failing to act convincingly to deal with that accusation, UK Prime Minister Theresa May ordered the expulsion of 23 diplomats from Russia’s London embassy in mid-March, stating that they were involved in intelligence activities.

However, the rest of Europe and the US were slow to follow up on the UK’s move, triggering talk of disunity amongst the Western allies. The announced expulsions will now go some way to resolving concerns that Moscow could have been encouraged by a lack of Western resolve in the face of Russian aggression.

Russia, of course, is not going to shrug off the kicking out of more than 100 of its diplomats from posts around the world. At the very least full reciprocity is expected from the Kremlin. What might be coming was highlighted by the reponse of the Russian embassy in the US which, taking into account that the Americans have also demanded the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, asked its Twitter followers to vote on which US consulate in Russia should be closed in response – Vladivostock, Yekaterinburg or St Petersburg.

"Right call"
As the expulsions were announced, speaker of the US House of Representatives Paul Ryan happened to be visiting Prague. In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, he said President Donald Trump made the "right call" in deciding to expel dozens of Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning on British soil. How supportive Trump was of the move decided on by the US government — he maintained “Twitter silence” in the hours after the expulsions announcement — remained in question, but Ryan asserted: "I think it was the right call. This is done in solidarity with our allies in Britain. I think it's fantastic that other European nations, including the Czech Republic right here, followed suit as well."

Ryan added: "I think the British have made their case pretty clear. And this is something that Russia has been doing, and this is something that we think that Russia has done. This should not be tolerated. This is not something that civil nations do."

The Kremlin denies any involvement in the attack on the Skripals and has suggested that the US, UK, or other countries, including the Czech Republic, could have been the source of the toxin.

Czech caretaker PM Andrej Babis, who met with Ryan, used firm language against Russia in declaring his support for the UK. “When our ally asks us for help, we should be forthcoming,” he said. “Russians crossed all possible lines when they said the novichok agent could originate from Czechia. It is a clear lie and we’ve denied it could be the case from the beginning.”

The Russian embassy in Prague is known for its excessive size. It employs 122 people – and is thought to be a base for intelligence activities taking place throughough Central and Eastern Europe.

Play badly in Russia
The announcement of the wave of expulsions will play very badly in Russia, a country currently shaken by the weekend fire that engulfed the Winter Cherry shopping and entertainment mall in Siberia, killing at least 64 people, many of them children.

President of the European Council Donald Tusk tactfully included a message of condolences in his expulsions statement, regretting the tragedy in Siberia.

“We remain critical of the actions of the Russian government, but at the same time, today, we Europeans — together with the Russian people — mourn the victims of the tragic fire in the city of Kemerovo in Western Siberia. Our thoughts and hearts are with you,” Tusk said in his official statement.

However, the new US ambassador to Russia John Huntsman was less cautious. He did not mention Kemerovo in a video statement

Regional hawk Poland warned of Russia's capacity to carry out more attacks similar to what occurred in Salisbury. "The attack in Salisbury shows that a similar immediate threat to the territory and citizens of EU and NATO member states can happen anywhere," Poland's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Poland also revealed on March 26 that its counterintelligence agency ABW had detained a Polish national allegedly spying for Russia in the energy ministry, feeding Moscow information as to Poland's policy on the controversial planned Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. It has been reported that the detained individual provided intelligence to two of the expelled Russian diplomats.

Kremlin-friendly and populist Czech President Milos Zeman has not at all been in tune with pan-European efforts to challenge Russia over the nerve agent attack. He has even ordered the security services to investigate whether there might be novichok storage or production in the Czech Republic.