A Czech diplomat has been declared persona non grata and must leave Belarus within 72 hours, said the speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Ruslan Voronkov, reports the Belarusian state news agency BelTA.
According to him, this was done in response to the expulsion from the Czech Republic “under an absolutely far-fetched and groundless pretext” of a Belarusian diplomat in the rank of advisor. Voronkov also said that the Belarusian side “considers the diplomatic incident exhausted.”
In addition, Voronkov said that Polish Charge d’Affaires Wojciech Filimonowicz was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, with whom “a thorough conversation on the current state of Belarusian-Polish relations” was held.
On 8 September, the Czech security services announced about the exposure of the network of Belarusian intelligence services operating in Europe and declared persona non grata a Belarusian diplomat working for the intelligence services. At the same time, it became known about the detention of former deputy head of the Information and Security Service (SIS) of Moldova, 47-year-old Alexander Balan, in Romania. He is accused of espionage in favour of Belarus and treason by transferring information, constituting a state secret.
Meanwhile, Poland said it had arrested a Belarusian agent and would expel the diplomat, who “supported the aggressive actions of the Belarusian state against Poland.”
Poland completely closed the border with Belarus against the background of the Russian-Belarusian military exercises “Zapad-2025. After the end of the exercise on 16 September, the border remained closed.