State Department tells families of US diplomats in Ukraine to leave

The Biden administration is considering sending several thousand troops to Europe amid a Russian military build-up.

Ukrainian soldiers in a dugout on the frontline with Russia-backed separatists near Gorlivka, in the Donetsk on Sunday. Picture: AFP

The State Department has instructed the families of US diplomats in Ukraine to leave the country and authorised some embassy staff members to also depart, while the Biden administration considers sending several thousand troops to Europe amid a Russian military build-up.

The State Department decision, announced on Sunday (Monday AEDT), comes as US officials have warned that an attack could come at any time.

As part of its announcement, the State Department is also recommending that all US citizens in Ukraine consider leaving now. The embassy won’t be in a position to help Americans depart the country if a Russian attack is under way, senior State Department officials said.

President Joe Biden said last week that he expected that Russian President Vladimir Putin would move on Ukraine in some way. US and Russian officials have also agreed to continue their negotiations, so the timing and scope of any potential Russian military ­action remains unclear.

Mr Biden met on Saturday at Camp David with his national ­security team to discuss the Russian military threat to Ukraine and efforts by the US and its allies to deter an attack.

The President has repeatedly warned that the US and its allies will strengthen their forces on the eastern flank of NATO members closest to Russia, if Russian forces invade Ukraine.

“We’re going to actually increase troop presence in Poland, in Romania, et cetera, if in fact he moves because we have a sacred obligation in Article 5 to defend those countries. They are part of NATO,” Mr Biden said last week, referring to the treaty’s provision of collective defence.

Among the options currently under consideration is sending several thousand troops before a possible Russian attack, according to US officials. If decided, such ­forces might not go to Poland, Romania or other eastern flank countries right away but could be positioned initially in another ­European country, according to some options under discussion.

The military rationale for sending the troops soon would be to get them in position so they could be quickly mobilised in the event of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Biden administration officials, however, are also wary of providing Russia with a pretext to attack Ukraine and don’t want to signal that Washington has given up all hope of a diplomatic solution with Moscow over Ukraine.

The anticipated decision to instruct diplomats’ family members to leave Ukraine has also posed sensitive diplomatic issues.

US officials informed the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry of the decision on Thursday, according to an adviser to the Ukrainian government. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry officials have privately said that any evacuation of US Embassy staff would send a damaging message, telegraphing that the US sees an impending Ukrainian armed conflict with Russia.

State Department officials said the US embassy would continue to operate without interruption. “These are prudent precautions that in no way undermine our support for Ukraine,” a State Department official said.

Russia has positioned more than 100,000 troops on three sides of Ukraine. In addition to troops to the east of Ukraine and in and around Crimea and the Black Sea, Russia has announced that it is conducting military exercises with Belarus, north of Ukraine. Western analysts have said that exercise is a pretext to pressure Ukraine to make concessions or invade the country.

The Russian deployments in Belarus and in Russian territory northeast of Ukraine have made Kiev more vulnerable. Ukraine’s best forces have been positioned near Russian-backed separatists in Donbas, in the southeast portion of the country.

Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia may use tactics short of an invasion to destabilise Ukraine. The US has said Russia was planning to deploy operatives to fabricate an incident as a pretext for an invasion. Over the weekend, the UK said it had exposed a plot by Russia to install a friendly government in Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday of the UK allegations that the US had been “warning about just this kind of tactic for weeks”. Speaking on CNN, he added: “This is very much part of the Russian tool kit” of strategies for undermining Ukraine.

The Wall Street Journal