OREANDA-NEWS. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis claims that the two employees of the Belarusian diplomatic service expelled from the republic are allegedly intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover.

Earlier, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry reported that the republic declared two employees of the Belarusian Embassy in Vilnius persona non grata, as they carried out activities incompatible with diplomatic status. They were ordered to leave Lithuania within seven days.

“Two Belarusian intelligence officers working under diplomatic cover were asked to leave Lithuania. No thanks and goodbye,” Landsbergis wrote on Twitter.

On Monday, the Mayor of Riga Martins Stakis said that among the flags of the countries participating in the World Ice Hockey Championship in Riga, instead of the national flag of Belarus, a white-red-white flag was raised, which is used by the Belarusian opposition. This happened after the incident with an emergency landing in Minsk of a Ryanair aircraft. In connection with the replacement of the flag, the Latvian ambassador in Minsk was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, he was handed a protest note. The ambassador was asked to leave Belarus within 24 hours, the entire diplomatic and administrative-technical staff - within 48 hours. The Latvian Foreign Ministry, in turn, said that the country is expelling the ambassador of Belarus and all diplomats in response to similar actions by Minsk.