The Russian tricolor is lowered from the flagpole at the Russian embassy in Kiev. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on the evacuation of employees of the Russian diplomatic mission and their families from Ukraine.
The evacuation is carried out to ensure the safety of the staff of the diplomatic mission and their families, reports “Interfax”. Earlier, Western diplomats left Kyiv. Most of them moved to Lviv. At the same time, American diplomats preferred to travel to Lviv to work and spend the night in neighboring Poland.
Since Maidan 2014, the Russian embassy has been repeatedly attacked. Also, Ukrainian nationalists attacked the Russian consulates in Odessa, Lvov and Kharkov. Russian diplomats were repeatedly threatened, unknown people burned their cars, and containers with paint were launched into the walls of the building.
The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine announced on February 23, 2022 the introduction of state of emergency. The state of emergency does not apply to the territories of the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, whose independence from Kiev was officially recognized by Russia the day before.
Kiev called on Ukrainian citizens to leave Russian territory. In addition, the American embassy in Moscow warned its fellow citizens about possible terrorist attacks in major Russian cities. The US Embassy did not specify from whom the threat comes. At the same time, Ukrainian saboteurs carried out a series of terrorist attacks on the territory of Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as attempts to stage terrorist attacks, including in a church in Crimea. Six organizers of the failed explosion in the church were detained by the FSB of Russia.