The US Embassy in Kiev asked the State Department to allow the evacuation of all non-essential personnel

The U.S. Embassy in Kiev has asked the State Department to allow all employees, except for essential personnel, to leave Ukraine with their families. About it informs CNN citing multiple sources.

“The United States informed Ukraine that it would “probably start evacuating as early as next week,” wrote CNN correspondent Matthew Chance on his Twitter account. CNN indicates that this information was obtained from a source close to the Ukrainian government.

The US Embassy declined to comment, offering to address questions to the State Department in Washington. A State Department spokesman said he had “nothing to announce yet,” adding that the department “is doing thorough contingency planning as always when the security situation deteriorates.”

A source told CNN that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed a possible evacuation with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. The Ukrainian leader, according to the interlocutor, said that such a step by the Americans would be “an overreaction.”

See also The New York Times wrotethat Russia at the beginning of 2022 took family members of diplomats out of Ukraine. According to the publication, about 50 people left the embassy in Kiev and the consulate in Lviv. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that “the Russian embassy in Kiev is operating normally.”

Earlier it was reported that Russia is actively moving military equipment to the Ukrainian border. 8 December Conflict Intelligence Team reported about the transfer of the Buk M1 division to the suburbs of Voronezh. Investigators concluded that a troop build-up continues along the borders with Ukraine, despite negotiations between Putin and Biden. Also Jan 15 CIT reported on the transfer of Iskander missile launchers from the Far East to the west of Russia.