War in Ukraine: a special flight to Roissy to bring back nearly 140 Russians expelled by France – Le Figaro

These “persona non grata” boarded a plane sent by Russia, in the middle of the afternoon, this Saturday. A special plane chartered by Moscow was at Roissy airport on Saturday to bring back to Russia nearly 140 Russian nationals expelled by France, AFP learned from an airport source. Read alsoHow Putin Russifies the conquered areas in Ukraine: the report of the special envoy of Figaro 137 passengers, “persona non grata” accompanied by their family and relatives, embarked in the middle of the afternoon aboard the plane which was to take off in stride, reported this source. “The Russians sent a plane. Since they do not have the right to fly over France, this has been the subject of a diplomatic agreement. People are leaving under good escort,” the airport source told AFP. Expulsion of 41 Russian diplomats France announced at the beginning of the month the expulsion of 41 Russian diplomats who it said engaged in espionage activities under cover of their embassy, ​​specifying that the sanction was part of “a European approach” . Many other European countries such as Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Austria, Poland, Greece or Croatia have massively expelled Russian diplomats since the start of the invasion of Ukraine . Read alsoUkraine: around 150 Russian diplomats expelled from Europe in 48 hours In some cases, these expulsions were officially supposed to respond to the outbreak of war in Ukraine by Russian forces and the abuses for which they are accused by Westerners. In several other cases, they were accompanied by accusations of espionage.