Radio Free Europe said on Monday that at least three Russian diplomats declared persona non grata by European Union member states following the invasion of Ukraine are accredited in Serbia.

An RFE investigation showed that two of those diplomats are known to have links to Russian intelligence services accused of cyber attacks. A fourth diplomat left the Russian embassy in Helsinki before being declared persona non grata by Finland. It said that Moscow raised its diplomatic presence in Serbia after the wave of expulsions from the EU in 2022. At present, there are 62 accredited Russian diplomats in Serbia compared to 54 a year earlier.

RFE said it was given a list of expelled Russian diplomats which included Alexei Ivanenko who was expelled from Croatia, Mikhail Generalov who was expelled from Poland, Dmitri Barabin who was banned from entering the Netherlands before taking up a post in the embassy as well as Pyotr Dolgoshin who was expelled from Finland.