Today at 17:44
The US embassy has made the decision to send home family members and allowed some other diplomatic personnel to leave. It’s a partial evacuation, mostly family members, again because of the situation with Russia near and around Ukraine.
Walter Braunohler, adviser on press, education and culture, stated this in a commentary to UA TV channel
However, the American Embassy here does remain open for business and our work with Ukrainian partners, governments, organisations, people will continue and really has only intensified in the past few weeks. Yes. Kristina Kvien will remain in Ukraine as the chief of mission here at our diplomatic offices. Sure. I think this is an example of the United States taking the threat from Russia to extreme to Ukraine extremely seriously.
However, again, our embassy remains open and we remain steadfast in our support as ever for Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity. Just over the last few days, additional planeloads of defensive weapons totalling more than $200 million in additional military assistance have begun to arrive in Ukraine and to be followed by many more shipments in the weeks and days ahead. So while we are sending some family members and some personnel at home due to an abundance of caution, we remain steadfast in our support of Ukraine. Well, we’re still pursuing.
There’s two options for Russia. One is a diplomatic path, which we still hope will be successful in de-escalating this conflict. But if Russia decides not to take that path, we’ve made it very clear to them that they’re going to be severe consequences for Russia and the Russian economy. And in other spheres as well. So we remain committed to Ukraine. And at this point, we have to see which direction Russia takes. And I think, you know, the primary reason is that it’s due to the continued aggression at the border and within Crimea by Russia. So we’ve made that decision not because of any specific point that was reached, but it’s prudent at this point to allow family members and some diplomatic personnel to leave Ukraine.
However, I want to reiterate that the embassy remains open for business again. The reason that some diplomats are leaving is Russia. And unfortunately, that’s how we’ve come to that decision. I hope that many of us return in the next several weeks or months as the situation improves. But again, that’s going to depend on which path Mr. Putin takes.
So everywhere in the world, when an embassy goes on any kind of evacuation status, it goes on that status for 30 days at a time. So in approximately one month, the embassy and the State Department will re-evaluate the position to see if the security situation has changed at about points. Diplomats and their families may return to Ukraine, or they may decide to keep family members and others outside of Ukraine for another month.
So we will see and we’ll adjust to the situation as the security situation warrants. We have what’s called a no double standard policy, so any advice or recommendations that we give to Americans who work at the embassy, we also give to the wider public. So Americans who may be resident in Ukraine for whatever reason. And so just as we’re advising our family members to return to the US or to temporarily leave Ukraine, we’ve also advised other Americans to do so. Of course, we can’t force anyone to do anything. So I imagine a lot of Americans will stay in Ukraine. There are, of course, a lot of Ukrainian Americans who have built lives here and will remain here. But we have communicated our stance as part of the reason why it’s in the news today so that everyone has the same information
