The situation is currently too uncertain
China pauses evacuations from Ukraine
02/27/2022 11:57 am
After the attack by Russian troops, the situation in Ukraine is dangerous and confusing. In this situation, evacuation cannot take place, says China’s ambassador. As a result, thousands of Chinese must remain in the country while hostility against the citizens of the Russian ally grows.
China’s embassy has temporarily suspended its support for Chinese citizens leaving Ukraine. Ambassador Fan Xianrong explained on the Chinese short message service WeChat that the situation is currently too uncertain to leave the country. As soon as the safety conditions were met again, the evacuations would begin again.
According to Chinese information, around 6,000 Chinese nationals were working or studying in the eastern European country before the Russian attack on Ukraine last Thursday. While most Western countries had already begun withdrawing their embassy staff from Kyiv in the weeks before and urging their citizens to leave Ukraine, China waited until Thursday before announcing it would organize charter flights for its citizens to leave the country. On the same day, however, Ukraine closed its airspace to civilian flights. Fan asserted that he was still staying at the embassy.
China is one of Russia’s few remaining allies. On Saturday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi again opposed sanctions and called for Russia’s “legitimate security demands” to be given due consideration.
Ambassador Fan called on his stranded compatriots to avoid any arguments with the locals after unconfirmed reports in the online networks of increasing hostility towards the Chinese by Ukrainians. “The Ukrainian people are in a difficult situation, they are suffering a lot,” he said. “We have to understand their feelings and shouldn’t provoke them.”