Washington (CNN) The United States, European Union countries, Canada and Ukraine expelled more than 100 Russian diplomats on Monday in response to Russia's alleged use of a nerve agent to poison a former Russian spy living in the United Kingdom.

President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats the US identified as intelligence agents and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle, the most forceful action Trump has taken against Russia to date. Of those being expelled, 48 of the alleged intelligence agents work at the Russian embassy in Washington and 12 are posted at the United Nations in New York, senior administration officials said.

Russia and the United Kingdom have been embroiled in a bitter diplomatic fight since Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter, 33-year-old Yulia Skripal, were poisoned in the English cathedral city of Salisbury on March 4.

British Prime Minister Theresa May called the broad move "the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history."

"We have no disagreement with the Russian people who have achieved so much through their country's great history. But President Putin's regime is carrying out acts of aggression against our shared values," she said Monday. "The United Kingdom will stand shoulder to shoulder with the EU and NATO to face down these threats."

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