Forty Russian diplomats and embassy staff have been expelled from Romania as relations worsen between the countries over the war in Ukraine.
The staff and their families left on a special flight from Bucharest which was organised by the Russian authorities.
The number of staff at the Russian embassy has been slashed by more than half and follows the expulsion of 11 Russian diplomats immediately after Ukraine was invaded in February 2022.
Romania was a communist state until a revolution overthrew its dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, but was never a part of the Soviet Union which collapsed the same year.
