MINSK, 20 November (BelTA) – Counsellor of the Embassy of Ukraine in Belarus Igor Skvortsov has been declared persona non grata, BelTA learned from Dmitry Pobyarzhin, a spokesman for the State Security Committee of Belarus (KGB), on 20 November.
The Ukrainian citizen Pavel Sharoiko has been apprehended in Belarus. He confirmed that his intelligence gathering activities had been supervised by Igor Skvortsov, an officer at the Central Intelligence Office of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, who had worked in Belarus under the guise of the counsellor of the Ukrainian embassy. Igor Skvortsov was declared persona non grata for actions incompatible with his diplomatic status, said Dmitry Pobyarzhin.
The KGB spokesman went on saying: “Information to confirm the unlawful actions of Ukrainian special services against our country was sent to the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 25 October. Several hours later Ambassador of Ukraine to Belarus Igor Kizim was told by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the Ukrainian intelligence service officer had been apprehended. Taking into account the nature of Belarus-Ukraine relations the sides agreed to keep these facts out of the public limelight.”
