Russian Ambassador to Austria Dmitrij Ljubinskij is summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the “profil” interview, Lyubinsky portrayed Russia as the victim and Ukraine as the aggressor.
Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) will summon Russian Ambassador to Austria Dmitrij Ljubinskij to the Foreign Ministry on Monday. Schallenberg announced this in an interview on “oe24.TV”, which will air at 9pm, as the network announced in a broadcast.
Schallenberg harshly criticized the ambassador’s statements, which he made in a “profile” interview over the weekend: “He is therefore being recited to the Itamaraty. It is a mockery of the victims of this war when the photos come from Butscha at the same time. We will tell the ambassador very clearly what we think about this.”
Expulsion of Russian diplomats possible
In the interview, Lyubinsky claimed, among other things, that the Ukrainians were blowing up their own hospitals and described the sanctions against Russia as “sheer theft”. The actions of the Russian army correspond to the UN Charter in accordance with Article 51, which regulates self-defense and defense of allies.
Schallenberg went on to explain: “I am the first foreign minister of the Second Republic to declare a Russian diplomat persona non grata.” Russian diplomats from Austria are not out.
Schallenberg: “We have other means of sanctions”
The broadcast does not reveal how things will continue after the conversation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the whereabouts of Dmitry Lyubinsky in Austria. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations regulates how to proceed with a “persona non grata”. Article 9(1) states: “The receiving State may, at any time, without giving reasons, notify the sending State that (sic!) the head of the mission or a member of the diplomatic staff of the mission is persona non grateful or that (sic! !) another member of the mission team is not acceptable to him. In such cases, the sending State must remove the person in question or terminate his duties with the mission.”
In the interview, Schallenberg also speaks out against a gas embargo: “We must not make the mistake that there is only one way. We have other ways of tightening the sanction screws and we will use them too.” Alleged atrocities by invading Russian forces in Bucha, Ukraine, have fueled calls for tightening sanctions on Moscow, a city near the capital Kiev where hundreds of civilians were killed during a month-long Russian occupation, according to Ukrainian officials.
Lithuania expels Russian ambassador
EU countries are reacting to the massacre in the Kiev suburb of Bucha with diplomatic measures. The Baltic Republic of Lithuania has declared the Russian ambassador there to be undesirable. In addition, the decision was made to send the Lithuanian ambassador to Ukraine back to Kiev, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Twitter.
“The brutality of the Russian occupation forces exceeded all the norms of the civilized world,” Landsbergis said, according to the Baltic news agency BNS. “Unfortunately, what the world is seeing in Bucha may be just the beginning. As more cities are liberated, we may see more signs of horrific war crimes.”
It is eagerly awaited whether other states will follow. After the massacre became known, top EU politicians promised more punitive measures against the Russian Federation. A diplomat’s declaration of “persona non grata” is one of the harshest sanctions in diplomatic relations. Heads of mission are rarely affected by this measure because it involves a downgrading of diplomatic relations. Because the Russian ambassador has to leave the country, Russia is only represented by a charge d’affaires in the neighboring country.
(PA/red.)