The United States on Thursday expelled Russia’s No 2 diplomat in the Washington embassy after Moscow’s expulsion of he second-ranking US diplomat earlier this year, a State Department official said. 

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Russia was informed about the expulsion of Minister Counselor Sergey Trepelkov on Wednesday and the diplomat was given a few weeks notice to leave the US, the official added. 

The State Department said that the action is not related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is a part of a long-running dispute between Washington and Moscow over embassy staffing. 

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Trepelkov worked under Ambassador Anatoly Antonov. Russia expelled U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Bart Gorman from Moscow in mid-February. 

The official further added that the step was taken “as a direct response to the unprovoked Russian expulsion of our deputy chief of mission.”

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Despite plummeting relations over the current situation in Ukraine, the US still believes it is important to maintain diplomatic contacts to facilitate communication between our governments, the official said. But ‘it would not allow actions like Gorman’s expulsion go without a response’. 

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Aside from tensions over Ukraine, the United States and Russia have been locked in a tit-for-tat battle over diplomatic staffing in each other’s countries since early 2017 when the Obama administration ordered several Russian diplomatic missions in the United States closed and expelled numerous Russian diplomats over Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Russia responded with reciprocal measures and the situation has since escalated.

With inputs from the Associated Press