The United States considers Russia's expulsion of the deputy chief of the US mission to Russia, Bart Gorman, to be an "escalatory step" and is weighing a response, a US State Department spokesperson told Sputnik on Thursday.

"We can confirm that Russia expelled U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) to Russia Bart Gorman," he announced.

In a statement, the spokesperson mentioned that "DCM Gorman was the second-most senior official at U.S. Embassy Moscow after the Ambassador and a key member of the Embassy's senior leadership team."

"Russia’s action against our DCM was unprovoked and we consider this an escalatory step and are considering our response," the US State Department spokesperson highlighted.

An exchange of expelling diplomats

Last year, Moscow and Washington exchanged expelling diplomats.

The most recent incident of which was late December, when Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced that by January 31, US Embassy employees that have been in Moscow for more than three years should leave the country.

Russia accused Washington, a few days ago, of continuing to spread lies about Ukraine, explaining that American politicians are still lying and fabricating pretexts to attack civilians around the world.

The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the coordinated media attack against Moscow, saying that Western media are repeating false information about alleged "Russian aggression" against Ukraine, aimed at discrediting Moscow's security proposals.

NATO and Western states have recently expressed concern about the alleged increase in "aggressive actions" by Russia near the borders of Ukraine.

However, Moscow has repeatedly rejected such accusations, stating that it does intend to threaten anyone and is not going to attack Ukraine, pointing out that the Western claims are used as a pretext to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders.