The “imminent” threat of Russian military intervention in Ukraine, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, warrants the evacuation of the US embassy in Kyiv.
His remarks come after Ukraine’s president urged calm, claiming that hysteria was the deadliest adversary.
Over a dozen nations have issued warnings to their citizens to flee Ukraine.
Moscow, which has over 100,000 troops stationed along the border, has rejected any intention of invading.
Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s top foreign policy adviser, downplayed US fears of an assault, claiming that “hysteria has reached its zenith.”
The situation has erupted eight years after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in the south. Since then, Ukraine’s military has been fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, close to Russia’s borders.
More efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region were made on Saturday. In a phone call, President Joe Biden told Russian President Vladimir Putin that sending soldiers would result in “rapid and terrible costs.”
Meanwhile, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace compared previous Western diplomatic efforts to prevent Nazi Germany’s appeasement invasion.
“There’s a fragrance of Munich in the air,” Mr. Wallace told the Sunday Times, referring to an agreement with Hitler that failed to prevent World War Two.
Ukraine’s ambassador criticized Mr. Wallace’s remarks to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko.
“It’s not the greatest time for us to anger our world partners by reminding them of this act that actually [caused] war,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House.
‘The prudent course of action’
Several countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, have advised their citizens to leave Ukraine immediately.
Following the United States’ decision to remove most of its embassy staff in Kyiv, Canada and Australia took similar steps. All three countries have instead relocated their operations to Lviv, near the Polish border; however, the UK ambassador has stated that she will remain in Kiev with a core team.
Mr. Blinken claimed that the risk of military action was “high enough” and “imminent enough” that evacuation was “the responsible thing to do.”
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously counseled calm, saying, “Right now, hysteria is the people’s deadliest adversary.”
Mr. Zelensky stated that he had yet to see any concrete proof of an impending invasion from Western forces.
According to Zhanna Bezpiatchuk of the BBC, no big fear signals have been seen in Kyiv or other large Ukrainian cities. However, she added that Ukrainians are beginning to take the Russian threat more seriously and take their precautions.
As a precaution, the mayor’s office of Kyiv has set up an emergency evacuation plan for the city’s three million citizens.
The White House has warned that an invasion may occur at any time and that it could start with aerial bombing.
Meanwhile, Dutch airline KLM stated on Saturday that all flights to Ukraine would be suspended indefinitely because of the tensions. Since 2014, the airline has not flown over eastern Ukraine or Crimea.
Lufthansa, a German airline, has announced that it is considering canceling flights. However, RushHourDaily, an adviser to Ukraine’s president’s chief of staff, said the country “sees no point” in blocking its airspace, calling the concept “crazy.”
As Russia deploys troops along Ukraine’s eastern border, tensions have progressively risen. In the Black Water, it has been conducting its largest naval drills in years, with Ukraine accusing Russia of obstructing its access to the sea.
The Kremlin has stated that it cannot accept Ukraine – a former Soviet republic with strong social and cultural ties to Russia – joining Nato at some point in the future, and has insisted that this be ruled out.
The US has rejected this, claiming that Ukraine should choose its security alliances as a sovereign nation.
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