The United States has evidence that Russia is preparing to evacuate the families of diplomats from Ukraine in late December and early January, stated at the briefing, White House Spokesperson Jen Psaki at a January 18 briefing. Earlier, the New York Times wrote about the same.
“We have information that indicates that the Russian government was preparing to evacuate their family members from the Russian embassy in Ukraine in late December and early January. We will certainly contact them for more details about this decision, but we do not have an understanding of why this was done,” Psaki said.
Russia did not notify the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry about the evacuation of diplomats
According to the New York Times, citing a source in the Ukrainian Security Service, diplomats at two Russian consulates were ordered to prepare to leave the country. On January 5, 18 people had already left the country, mostly the children and wives of Russian diplomats. About 30 more people will soon leave the consulates in Kiev and Lvov, the source said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, in response to this information, announced the regular work of the embassy in Kiev. The speaker of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, said that the agency did not receive information from Russia about the evacuation of diplomatic missions.
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