Australia began evacuating the families of diplomats from Kiev

On January 24, the Australian authorities began to evacuate members of the families of diplomats from the Ukrainian capital, and also called on fellow citizens to urgently leave the territory of Ukraine, writes газета The Sydney Morning Herald.

The Australian government has raised the alert level when visiting Ukraine and recommends “avoid travel”.

According to the Ukrainian side, up to 1.4 thousand Australians may be in the country.

The Australian authorities have warned that those fellow citizens who remain in Ukraine should be extra careful, be ready to take refuge in places specially designed for this.

Earlier it was reported that the US State Department on January 23 decided cut the number of employees of the embassy in Ukraine due to “military threats” from Russia. At the same time, the agency recommended that US citizens in Ukraine leave the country on commercial flights.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called the US decision hasty and excessive. The head of the Ukrainian department explained that nothing drastic has happened recently, and the Russian threat has remained constant since 2014.

Later, the British government announced the start of the withdrawal from Ukraine of some employees of its embassy and their families in response to the “increasing scale of Russia’s threatening actions.” And the German Foreign Ministry, according to the Bild newspaper, is preparing a plan for the evacuation of its employees from Ukraine in case the situation in the region worsens, but this information was not confirmed by the ministry.

On January 24, NATO announced that it would put additional forces on high alert and send more ships and fighters to Eastern Europe. In addition, US President Joe Biden is considering a plan to send up to 50,000 US troops to the Baltics and Eastern Europe, as well as to send warships and aircraft, writes The New York Times.

In recent months, experts have reported that Russia is building up its troop grouping near the borders with Ukraine, and this could mean preparations for invasion. The Russian authorities insist that they do not hatch any aggressive plans. At the same time, on January 14, the Ministry of Defense announced the start of a check of the combat readiness of troops in the Eastern Military District, in which part of the formations and military units “will make marches in a combined way to unfamiliar training grounds located at a considerable distance from permanent deployment points, to perform combat training tasks “.

Abroad, these statements are not trusted. January 14 at the White House and the Pentagon reportedthat the US authorities have information that Russia is preparing a “false flag” provocation to justify the invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin called these reports “unfounded.”