Russia's FSB security service said on Friday it had revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow after accusing them of spying and sabotage work, signalling the Kremlin's anger at what it sees as London's vital role in helping Ukraine.
Britain's embassy in Moscow and the UK government did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Russia announced the expulsions hours ahead of planned talks in Washington between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. President Joe Biden on the next steps in supporting Ukraine, centring on whether to allow Western missiles to be used to hit targets in Russia.
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles, a move he said would alter the nature and scope of the conflict.
The FSB, the main successor agency to the Soviet KGB, said it had documents showing that a British foreign office department in London responsible for Eastern Europe and Central Asia was coordinating what it called "the escalation of the political and military situation" and was tasked with ensuring Russia's strategic defeat in its war against Ukraine.
"The facts revealed give grounds to consider the activities of British diplomats sent to Moscow by the directorate as threatening the security of the Russian Federation," the FSB said in a statement.
"On the basis of documents provided by the Federal Security Service of Russia and as a response to the numerous unfriendly steps taken by London, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, in co-operation with the agencies concerned, has terminated the accreditation of six members of the political department of the British Embassy in Moscow in whose actions signs of spying and sabotage were found," it said.
The six diplomats were named on Russian state TV, which also showed photographs of them. Surveillance footage of them was also released to Russian media, including covert video surveillance of a British diplomat meeting someone.
"The English did not take our hints about the need to stop this practice (of carrying out intelligence activities inside Russia), so we decided to expel these six to begin with," an FSB employee whose identity was hidden told the Rossiya-24 state TV channel.
The FSB said Russia would ask other British diplomats to go home early if they were found to be engaged in similar activity.
The Izvestia newspaper cited the FSB as saying that the British diplomats had recruited Russian teenagers, organised what it called provocations, and held talks in the British ambassador's Moscow residency with opposition figures.
It accused British diplomats of working with Russian activists to try to create divisions within Russian society around different ethnic groups and migrants and said many of the people involved in coordinating Britain's work on Ukraine based in London and Kyiv were working for the MI6 foreign intelligence service.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the activities of the British embassy in Moscow had gone well beyond the Vienna diplomatic conventions.
"More importantly, it is not just a question of formality and non-compliance with declared activities, but of subversive actions aimed at damaging our people," Zakharova said on Telegram.
