Blinken explains US diplomats’ departure from Ukraine’s Lviv to Poland
The U.S. diplomats who recently relocated from Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv to the western city of Lviv will spend the night in Poland and will regularly return to Ukraine to continue work, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted on Feb. 22.
Earlier on Feb. 22, U.S.-based Bloomberg business news agency reported that the United States had evacuated State Department personnel and embassy operations from Ukraine to Poland on Monday, Feb. 21, amid fears that security conditions could deteriorate following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recognition of two separatist regions in the eastern part of the country.
The U.S. officials are expected to remain at a hotel just over the border with Poland.
“They will regularly return to continue their diplomatic work in Ukraine and provide emergency consular services,” Blinken tweeted.
On Jan. 24, the U.S. Department of State authorized the voluntary departure of government employees and ordered family members of government employees to leave the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.
On Feb. 12, the U.S. Department of State ordered non-emergency diplomats to leave the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.
On Feb. 14, Blinken announced that Washington was closing the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and “temporarily redeploying” the small number of diplomatic personnel remaining in the country to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.
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