The killings of hundreds of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, allegedly by Russian forces, is "slowing" negotiations to end the seven-week-long conflict in Ukraine, Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday.
"It's clear that the events in Bucha have slowed everything down," Di Maio told Italian public radio RAI's Zapping programme.
"The expulsions of diplomats are also events that happened after the events in Bucha, which have slowed down the whole dialogue process," he said.
Russia expelled 18 European Union diplomats on Friday after the bloc on 5 April ordered 19 Russian diplomats to leave Belgium on national security grounds following the discovery of atrocities in Bucha on 1 April.
