Shafaq News/ Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday that Moscow was expelling more than 20 German diplomats, the RIA Novosti news agency said, as Berlin said some Russian diplomats had left Germany.

A German Foreign Ministry official said Berlin and Moscow had been in contact about their respective representations in the last few weeks with the aim of reducing Russia's intelligence presence in Germany.

"Today's departure of Russian embassy staff is related to this," said the official. The German ministry declined to say how many Russian diplomats had left.

Relations between Russia and Germany, which used to be the biggest buyer of Russian oil and gas, have fallen apart since Moscow sent its armed forces into Ukraine in February 2022 and the West responded with sanctions and with weapons for Ukraine.

Commenting on Germany's expulsions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said: "We strongly condemn these actions by Berlin, which continues to demonstratively destroy the entire array of Russian-German relations."

It said its own expulsions were "reciprocal", and that it would significantly limit the maximum number of staff at German diplomatic missions.

It said Germany's ambassador had been told of the moves at talks on April 5.

Germany's Bild daily reported that 34 of the 90 German diplomats remaining in Moscow had been told to leave Russia.