the day before Bloomberg citing sources, he also wrote that the United States is considering the possibility of evacuating diplomats from Ukraine due to the situation around the alleged “Russian invasion”.
According to the plan, family members of diplomats can be taken out on a mandatory basis, and non-essential embassy staff will be able to leave at will. According to the agency, an official announcement of the start of the evacuation could be published within a few days.
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In total, the US embassy in Ukraine employs about 180 US citizens and 560 employed Ukrainian citizens. This number does not include family members of American diplomats.
The interlocutor of the agency from among EU diplomats said that European countries also developed a plan for the evacuation of embassies in Ukraine in case of emergency, but so far no measures have been taken. The Express edition wrote that the British special service SAS received an order to be ready to take out diplomats at any time.
Express announced the readiness of Britain to evacuate diplomats from Ukraine
Earlier, on January 18, The New York Times, citing a source in the SBU, wrote that Russia was also preparing the evacuation of diplomats from the country. According to the source, staff at two Russian consulates were instructed to prepare for the departure. Moreover, in early January, 18 people had already left Ukraine, including the children and wives of Russian diplomats, the newspaper reported.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the same day that Russia was preparing to evacuate the families of diplomats from Ukraine in late December and early January.
The Russian Foreign Ministry denied this information, calling these statements a provocation, and announced the regular work of the diplomatic mission in Kiev.
Reports of a possible evacuation of embassies in Ukraine come amid accusations from the West of preparing a “Russian invasion” of Ukrainian territory. Moscow has repeatedly denied these accusations.