On 26 March 2018, Germany announced the expulsion of four Russian diplomats after the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, UK.
The move formed part of a broader, coordinated response by multiple European states and partners, aimed at signalling consequences for suspected state-linked covert operations on European territory.
Impact: a diplomatic escalation that reinforced the framing of such incidents as hybrid threats rather than isolated criminal cases.