As fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine escalate, the United States is preparing to pull all government personnel from Kyiv within the next two days with media pointing out that 7,000 Americans are registered with the US Embassy in Kyiv while as many as 30,000 Americans could be living in Ukraine.
According to media reports, the intelligence obtained by the US points that Russia is eyeing Wednesday as the target date for an invasion.
The travel level four advisory that the US State Department issued early Saturday morning announced that though some are staying put, most US direct-hire employees were being evacuated from the embassy in Kyiv.
It also urged American citizens not to travel to the area and those already in the country to depart immediately.
Some of that personnel, according to an official, are being moved to Lviv in western Ukraine due to its closer proximity to US diplomatic and consular facilities in neighboring countries.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, some staffers at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) withdrew from the Ukrainian rebel-held city of Donetsk after their respective countries recalled them due to concerns of an imminent Russian invasion.
Sources familiar with the issue said that the US had withdrawn all its OSCE staffers from Ukraine while British staffers were moved from Donetsk to an area controlled by the Ukrainian government.
Reports say that 21 OSCE monitors in total have reportedly left Donetsk while 30 others are to be moved to areas controlled by the Ukraine government.
According to OSCE, although the mission would continue to carry out its work, certain participating states had instructed their citizens to leave the mission headquarters within the next few days.
OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission was deployed to Ukraine in 2014after conflict broke out between Ukraine and Russian-backed forces.
Moscow has already expressed concerns over the relocation of OSCE monitors with the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claiming that it only served to heighten tensions over Ukraine.
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