US preparing to approve evacuation from embassy in Ukraine: Sources – Everett Post

Everett

(WASHINGTON) – The State Department is preparing to authorize the evacuation of some US diplomats and diplomatic families from the embassy in Ukraine, sources confirmed to ABC News.

The final permit has not yet been approved, according to the sources, so the scope of the evacuation is not yet clear.

A State Department spokesman told ABC News: “We have nothing to announce at this time. As always, we are conducting rigorous contingency planning should the security situation deteriorate.”

That contingency planning has been underway for weeks, when ABC News first reported last month that the embassy was preparing for an authorized or ordered departure.

Authorized departure allows families and non-emergency workers to evacuate, typically on commercial flights, while orderly departure requires it.

In any case, the State Department will also warn US citizens to leave the country. Ukraine is already a Level 4: Do Not Travel in the ministry’s travel advisory, with an explicit warning that “Russia is planning significant military action against Ukraine.”

But while Americans are being warned not to leave this week, the State Department is making it clear they will not be evacuated on government planes like in Afghanistan — an evacuation the department continues to say does not set a precedent.

“If there is a decision to change our attitude towards American diplomats and their families, American citizens should not expect that there will be U.S. government-sponsored evacuations,” the State Department spokesman said. “Currently commercial flights are available to support departures.”

The decision to evacuate some staff and families from the embassy has angered the Ukrainian government, according to a source who said they were “upset”.

Ukrainians on the ground in Kyiv and on the front lines in the war between Ukraine and Russian-led forces in the eastern provinces have told ABC News they are less confident that a full-scale Russian attack is imminent. Some have suggested that the pressure from Moscow is a bluff – and one they believe the US is buying into with such moves.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hinted as much during his meeting with Foreign Minister Antony Blinken on Wednesday, previously telling him during a photo op: “Your intelligence is excellent, but you are far abroad and we are here and I think we know some things a bit deeper.”