US citizens in Ukraine advised to board commercial flights in case push comes to shove
A spokesperson for the US Department of State has warned Americans currently in Ukraine that they should not “anticipate that there will be US government-sponsored evacuations,” suggesting that they use the available commercial flights instead.
The official made the comment to media outlets on Friday, responding to questions on recent Ukraine evacuation reports. Several US media sources have claimed that Washington was considering evacuating its diplomatic personnel from Kiev in anticipation of an “invasion” that Russia was allegedly planning to launch.
Those reports were further amplified on Saturday when Fox cited unnamed US officials as having said that the State Department had “ordered families of US Embassy personnel in Ukraine to begin evacuating the country as soon as Monday.”
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Also on Saturday, CNN echoed the report, claiming that the US was planning to evacuate non-essential staff and their families from its embassy in Kiev. The news channel went on to suggest that it had been the US embassy that requested the State Department to authorize the move. CNN also cited a source close to the Ukrainian government as saying that the first American nationals could start leaving the country “as early as next week.”
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However, responding to Russia’s news agency Sputnik and other outlets later on Saturday, the State Department said it had no new announcements to make.
