Russia orders evacuation of its diplomats from Ukraine, cites 'threat to their lives'

Russia on Wednesday started evacuating embassy personnel from all of its diplomatic facilities in Ukraine, Russia’s state-owned TASS reported. Moscow launched evacuation efforts in its embassy in Kyiv, consulates in Kharkiv, Odesa, and Lviv, and diplomatic facilities in other locations, the embassy in Kyiv confirmed in a statement to TASS. The move was prompted after Ukraine urged its citizens residing in Moscow to ‘immediately’ exit the country citing the looming threat of an armed Russian invasion.

Moscow informed that the evacuations were aimed at “protecting lives” of Russian diplomatic staff in Ukraine as the US, the UK and NATO declared that a form of Russian invasion had begun, and pro-Russia rebels accused Ukraine Army of shortly launching an all-out offensive in the breakaway oblasts in the eastern flank of Kyiv. 

An Associated Press photographer on the ground reported that the Russian flag in Kyiv’s embassies “was no longer flying over the building.”

'To protect the lives and safety of diplomats'

“To protect the lives and safety (of diplomats), the Russian leadership decided to evacuate the personnel of Russian foreign missions in Ukraine, which will be implemented in the near future,” Moscow’s foreign ministry said in a statement. The embassy also claimed that Russian diplomats in Kyiv received threats and that the embassy and consulate have been under “repeated attacks” from the rebel Ukrainians. The claims about the nature of the threat could not be immediately verified. “Ukraine has plunged deeper into chaos,” the statement read. 

Several Western nations earlier relocated their embassies from Kyiv to the city of Lviv near the Polish border. The move came after the Russian Duma’s members of the upper house, the Federation Council, voted unanimously to send the troops that they call ‘peacekeepers’ to eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. With tensions escalating rapidly, and a broader conflict worsening between Ukrainian Army and Russian-backed rebels, Moscow took a preventive measure citing the safety of the staff members.

Russia had earlier last month thinned out the Russian diplomats — who were seen boarding buses and returned to Moscow on a 15-hour drive home, according to footages that floated online. The recent decision of evacuating the remaining staff came as the Russian Foreign Ministry announced a plan for the diplomats to leave Ukraine, citing threats against Russians.