i
Newsman: the U.S. is evacuating its diplomats and troops in the country and urging private American citizens to leave immediately, according to the State Department and Pentagon.
“It isn’t just time to leave Ukraine. It is past time for private citizens to leave Ukraine,” a senior State Department official said Saturday. The State Department’s travel advisory for Ukraine has also been updated, telling Americans in that country to “depart immediately.”
For Americans on the ground in Ukraine, the U.S. State Department is warning that it is “past time” for them to leave, as the threat of a Russian invasion remains imminent. Late Friday night, the department directed U.S. Embassy staff in Kyiv to depart the country. The U.S. is also suspending most consular services in Ukraine starting Sunday.
“We fervently hope and continue to work intensively to try to ensure that Ukraine does not become a war zone,” a senior State Department official said on Saturday at a news briefing. “However, it appears increasingly likely that this is where this situation is headed, toward some kind of active conflict.”
“That is why we are reducing our staff to a bare minimum while we still have the ability to get our official people out safely and in a predictable fashion,” the official said.
While the U.S. Embassy is not closing, the staff remaining in Ukraine will conduct only essential business. Some staff is relocating to the office in Lviv in western Ukraine, as well, where emergency consular services will be available.
The State Department is not detailing the exact number of personnel staying in the country but says the staff remaining will include security support and communications staff.
The U.S. embassy announced it was evacuating all but non-emergency staff from the country and that among the skeleton crew left behind, many would pull out of the capital, Kyiv, to the western city, Lviv, near the border with Poland.
The Pentagon also announced that it was withdrawing 160 soldiers from the Florida National Guard, among the only U.S. military presence in the country.
The United States is giving increasingly dire warnings since last few days that Russia will likely attack Ukraine in the coming days.
“Today in the information space, there is too much information about a deep, full-scale invasion from Russia,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters. “The best friend of our enemy is panic in our country, and all that information which helps create only panic doesn’t help us.”
President Joe Biden spoke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu Saturday, while Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a rare call Friday to his counterpart, Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov.
That call was part of a full-court press by the Biden administration to urge Russia to stand down from what U.S. officials say could be an imminent attack.
Russia has denied it has plans to invade Ukraine, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov telling Secretary of State Antony Blinken that again during a call Saturday, according to a second senior State Department official.
But those high-level calls have not yet changed the U.S. assessment that an attack could take place in the coming days, as Biden’s national security adviser warned Friday.
Therefore, the U.S. embassy is suspending consular services Sunday, as most of the remaining staff departs. While the embassy will not close, only emergency services will be available, with diplomats focused on communicating with the Ukrainian government.
During their call, Blinken “emphasized” to Lavrov the “priority we place on the safety and security of American citizens, diplomatic personnel and our embassy facility,” the second senior State Department official said.
Diplomats aren’t the only ones leaving. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered 160 soldiers from the Florida National Guard to leave Ukraine to be repositioned elsewhere in Europe, the Pentagon announced Saturday.
“These troops, assigned to the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, have been advising and mentoring Ukrainian forces as part of Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine,” said John Kirby, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson.
“They are departing Ukraine and will reposition elsewhere in Europe,” said Kirby. “The Secretary made this decision out of an abundance of caution — with the safety and security of our personnel foremost in mind — and informed by the State Department’s guidance on U.S. personnel in Ukraine.”
“This repositioning does not signify a change in our determination to support Ukraine’s armed forces, but will provide flexibility in assuring allies and deterring aggression,” he added.
In a sign of that, even as these drawdowns unfold, another shipment of U.S. military aid for Ukraine’s armed forces is scheduled to arrive Saturday, according to the first senior State Department official. But Biden has made clear U.S. troops will not enter Ukraine to support its military or even to evacuate American citizens.
