UK foreign secretary backs Czech efforts to expose Russian operations

Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, says his country stands in full support of its Czech allies following the Prague government’s decision to expel 18 Russian diplomats over Moscow’s involvement in an explosion in Moravia.

In a statement on Sunday the UK foreign policy chief said the Czech Republic had exposed the lengths that the Russian intelligence services would go to conduct dangerous and malign operations in Europe.

Mr. Raab said the case showed a pattern of behaviour by the Russian government, following the Novichok attack in Salisbury, adding that his sympathies were with the families of the two people killed in the explosion at an ammunition depot in Vrbětice in 2014.

The Czech Republic has also received support from the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Lithuania as well as from the US Embassy in Prague in the wake of Saturday’s bombshell revelation.