Ukraine has for the first time ever recalled Ihor Kyzym, the Ukrainian ambassador to Belarus on August 17, after the two countries traded verbal barbs in the last week.

Ukraine is upset that Belarus' self-appointed President Alexander Lukashenko has reneged on a deal to extradite to Ukraine 32 Wagner mercenaries that it detained in Minsk last week. At least 14 of the men, who appear to have been on their way to the Middle East, reportedly fought against the Ukrainian army in the Donbass.

"As you know, last Friday, officially Minsk handed over the detained Wagnerians to Russia, despite all the legal and moral grounds to hand them over to Ukraine. This step has undermined trust between our countries and dealt a severe blow to our bilateral relations," Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement on the ministry’s website. “After that, Alexander Lukashenko repeatedly and completely unfoundedly accused Ukraine of unfriendly steps against Belarus.”

Kyiv is also upset by Lukashenko’s comments blaming Ukraine for backing the protests and interfering in the recent presidential election. Belarusian state-controlled TV reported on an arrest of what it claimed were Ukrainian insurrectionists and showed pictures of Ukrainian secret service ID cards and wallets with pictures of Stephen Bandera, a famous Ukrainian nationalist that co-operated with the Nazis during WWII.

Kyiv said Lukashenko’s comments were “baseless accusations” and Kuleba also joined the EU in condemning the police crackdown on peaceful protesters following the presidential elections.

Kuleba also summoned Belarus’ ambassador to Kyiv to ask for an explanation of Minsk’s actions.

“The combination of these facts and actions, as well as the development of events in Belarus, whose society has expressed a vote of no confidence in the official results of the presidential election in Belarus, dramatically changes the situation in Ukrainian-Belarusian relations,” Kuleba said in the statement.

Prior to the elections Ukraine and Belarus had enjoyed good diplomatic and trade relations. In a poll last year Ukrainians named Lukashenko as their favourite foreign leader.