HONOLULU, Feb 13 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday that the high risk of a Russian military intervention in Ukraine justified the order for some of the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Kiev to leave the country.
“We have ordered the departure of most of the Americans still present at the United States Embassy in Kiev. The risk of a Russian military intervention being sufficiently high and the threat, imminent, that it is the most prudent thing to do” , Antony Blinken said at a Honolulu, Hawaii press conference.
The State Department also called on US nationals in Ukraine to leave the country immediately.
Washington warns of the imminence of a Russian offensive in Ukraine, while Moscow has already massed more than 100,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian border.
Russia says it has no belligerent intentions towards its neighbor, but has warned that it will take unspecified “military-technical” measures if the West does not respond favorably to its list of demands – including a guarantee that Ukraine will not join never NATO and that the latter withdraws its troops from Eastern Europe.
The Secretary of State recalled that the United States was open to dialogue on Ukraine and that Washington was ready to resolve the conflict through diplomatic means. (Humeyra Pamuk report; French version Camille Raynaud)