Some of the staff of the German embassy in Russia, declared persona non grata after Berlin expelled Russians engaged in an activity incompatible with their diplomatic status, returned home on Monday.

This was announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany in a statement quoted by AFP.

The German Foreign Ministry does not specify in the statement the number of German diplomats who returned to Berlin and underlined that they "always behaved in accordance with their diplomatic status."

According to the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, "over 20 German diplomats" \ are being expelled from Moscow. Russia announced the expulsion of German diplomats (Ukr) a week ago due to the "mass" expulsion of Russian embassy employees from Germany.

"To reduce the presence of Russian special services in Germany, the federal government has been in contact with the Russian side in recent weeks. As a result, in mid-April, employees of Russian representations in Germany left the country", the German Foreign Ministry emphasised on Monday.

They added that the activities of the expelled Russians "did not correspond to their diplomatic status."

Previously, journalists from news agencies in several Northern European countries have found that many employees of Russian diplomatic missions in the region are likely to be undercover spies.