Eye for an eye – Russia ready to target West after expulsions of diplomats

New Delhi, April 6: Calling it a "schizoid campaign", Russia's Security Council deputy head Dmitry Medvedev has said that expulsion of diplomats from several countries will be devastating to bilateral relations and invite a symmetrical response from Moscow.

Many European nations, including Sweden, Belgium, Poland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic have announced that they are expelling Russian diplomats due to its ongoing 'special military operation' in Ukraine.

Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov also labeled the move by European nations as a "shortsighted" step.

"We are negative about it, we regret it. It is a shortsighted step to narrow possibilities for diplomatic communication, diplomatic work in such difficult conditions, such unprecedented difficult and crisis conditions. Such a step will complicate our communication, which is needed to try to find a way out, and will inevitable lead to response steps," Peskov was quoted as saying by the Russian state-owned news agency Tass.

Medvedev also slammed Kiev accusations of civilian killings in Bucha, saying that it is another example of Ukraine's fake propaganda.

"An aircraft picture taken from a computer game. A drone downed by a jar of pickles. Dead heroes who surrendered to a Russian warship. A Mariupol maternity home. And now Bucha," the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council wrote on Telegram today.

"It's all fake news hatched by the cynical imagination of Ukrainian propaganda-makers. Numerous PR agencies and troll factories sponsored by Western governments and their tame non-profits and NGOs get a lot of money for cooking it all up," he added.

The Russian Defence Ministry had on Monday called the accusations of allegedly killing civilians in Bucha, a town about 26 kms northwest of the Ukrainian capital, as "another production by the Kiev regime for the Western media".

Moscow also said that its request for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the issue was rejected on Monday by the United Kingdom which holds the monthly Presidency.

Russia said that it has "factual evidence" on Bucha which it intended to present to the Security Council "so that the international community is not misled by the false narrative promoted by Kiev and its Western sponsors".

"Our efforts have been met with the fierce opposition of the UK Presidency with the support of other Western delegations, namely the US, France, Ireland, Norway and Albania. They tried to invent an invalid and lame pretext not to convene this meeting on Monday insisting that it should be postponed to Tuesday," said Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's Permanent Representative at the UN, earlier today.

Russia says that the main aim of circulating photographs and video materials allegedly testifying to certain "crimes" of Russian military personnel in Bucha is to slander its armed forces "in order to achieve the practical goals of the Kiev regime in the international arena".