KYIV, March 20 - Ukraine wants to help the U.K. push back against Russia — by bringing British diplomats expelled by the Kremlin to Kyiv, where they could work on a more fruitful bilateral relationship, Politico reported.

The U.K. last week ejected 23 Russian diplomats as punishment for Moscow’s alleged use of a nerve agent in the attempted assassination of a former spy, Sergei Skripal, in the English city of Salisbury.

As retaliation for London’s accusation, which Moscow vehemently denied, Russia on Saturday announced it was expelling an identical number of British diplomats. It also ordered the closure of the U.K. consulate in St. Petersburg and the Moscow office of the British Council, which promotes educational and cultural exchanges.

With the diplomatic standoff showing no sign of easing up, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, on Monday suggested another way for London to get under the skin of senior Russian officials: Sending its expelled diplomats to Kyiv to help with the country’s ongoing reforms and continuing military conflict with Russia, as well as expanding the British Council’s presence in Ukraine.

Klimkin said he proposed the bit of diplomatic trolling to his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, during a breakfast meeting in Brussels with other EU foreign ministers.

“I even said, you know Boris Johnson should relocate a couple expelled diplomats to Ukraine to support Ukraine and to work along with us,” Klimkin said. “You know, he said ‘Pavlo, it’s basically quite a good idea.’

“So he will consider it now in the sense of personnel decisions,” Klimkin added. “It would be great of course and also symbolic in a way.”

The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We keep analyzing Russian reaction, but also Russian propaganda reaction to the tragedy in Salisbury, and you know what, it’s not the same. Look don’t take me wrong, but it’s very similar to the Russian reaction on the MH17 tragedy,” he said. “In the sense of denials, in the sense of manipulations, in the sense of messages. Unfortunately we are quite experienced now in understanding Russian propaganda. It’s the same pattern.” (po/ez)