The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned envoys from Western nations which expelled Russian diplomats in solidarity with London today to set out its retaliatory measures.

Yesterday, the Kremlin ordered the expulsion of 60 US diplomats and shut the US consulate in St Petersburg, and today Dutch and Italian ambassadors to Russia confirmed two diplomats each were expelled, reports cityam.com.

The Russian foreign ministry ordered four Polish diplomats to leave the country by April 7 in retaliation for Warsaw’s decision to expel four Russian diplomats in solidarity with Britain, Reuters reported.

‘Poland’s ambassador Wlodzimierz Marciniak was invited to the Russian Federation’s foreign ministry where he was informed that four Polish diplomats were recognised as undesirable persons,’ said Poland’s foreign ministry in a statement.

Russia on Friday gave two Italian diplomats a week to leave the country, Italy’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, amid an increasingly bitter standoff over a nerve attack against a former Russian spy living in England.

On Monday, Italy expelled two Russian diplomats in an expression of solidarity with NATO and European Union ally Britain.

Earlier on Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned a slew of senior Western diplomats to set out the retaliatory measures it was taking with the West after numerous countries had expelled Russian diplomats.

Russia is expelling three Lithuanian diplomats in response to a similar move by the Baltic country in the wake of the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

‘We consider this to be a disproportionate response because Lithuania has fewer diplomats working in Russia than Russia has in Lithuania,’ a spokeswoman for the Baltic country’s foreign minister said.