The US State Department is preparing approval for the evacuation of several
diplomats and their families from the embassy in Ukraine. As reported by ABC
citing a source. According to the source, the final authorization has not
been approved so the scope of the evacuation is not clear.
"We have nothing to announce at this time. We are conducting rigorous
contingency planning, as we always do, should the security situation
deteriorate," a US State Department spokeswoman told ABC News in response to
the report Sunday. 2022).
That contingency planning has been going on for weeks now, as ABC News first
reported it last month that the US embassy was preparing for an official or
ordered departure.
Official departures allow families and non-emergency staff to evacuate,
usually on commercial flights, while ordered departures require them to do
so. In both cases, the US State Department will warn Americans to leave the
country as well.
Ukraine itself is already Level 4: Do Not Travel according to a US State
Department travel advisory with explicit warnings that Russia is planning
significant military action against Ukraine.
But while Americans will be warned to leave the country this week, the US
State Department made clear that they will not be evacuated on government
planes, as in Afghanistan — an evacuation the department keeps saying is no
precedent.
"If there is a decision to change our stance with respect to American
diplomats and their families, Americans should not anticipate that there
will be a US government-sponsored evacuation," a State Department spokesman
said.
"Currently commercial flights are available to support departures," he
added. The decision to evacuate some staff and families from the embassy has
angered the Ukrainian government, according to one of the sources.
Ukrainians in Kiev and on the frontlines in the war between Ukraine and
Russian-led forces in the eastern provinces told ABC News they were less
convinced that a full-scale Russian offensive was imminent.
Some argue that pressure from Moscow is just a bluff and they see the US
agreeing to a move like this. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted
at this during his meeting with Foreign Minister Antony Blinken last
Wednesday.
"Your intelligence is very good, but you're way overseas, and we're here,
and I think we know some things a little deeper," Zelensky told Blinken.
