Germany expels Russian embassy staffer over links to Russian spy

Germany is expelling a Russian embassy staffer over links to a woman arrested on suspicion of spying for Moscow, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Thursday.

It comes after authorities in Berlin arrested a woman on Wednesday suspected of spying for a Russian intelligence agency and passing on information related to the war in Ukraine.

The German-Ukrainian national is believed to have been in contact with a middleman at the Russian embassy in the German capital who worked for a Russian intelligence service, according to the Federal Public Prosecutors' Office.

Since November 2023 at the latest, the suspect provided the contact with "information relating to the war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine" on several occasions, Germany's top law enforcement agency said in a statement.

The German Foreign Office has since summoned the Russian ambassador and declared the person in question undesirable, Wadephul said on the sidelines of a visit to Ethiopia.