Ukraine tensions: US defends evacuating embassy as Ukraine urges calm
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the “imminent” threat of Russian military action in Ukraine justifies evacuating the US embassy in Kyiv.
His words came after Ukraine’s president urged calm, saying the biggest enemy was panic.
More than a dozen countries have urged their citizens to leave Ukraine.
Moscow, with more than 100,000 troops near the border, has denied its plans to invade.
The Kremlin’s top foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov has dismissed US warnings of an attack, saying “hysteria has reached its peak”.
Saturday saw further attempts to de-escalate tensions in the region. In a phone call, President Joe Biden warned Russian leader Vladimir Putin of “swift and severe costs” if Russia sends in troops.
UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, meanwhile, compared recent Western diplomatic efforts to stop an invasion to the appeasement of Nazi Germany.
Mr Wallace said “there’s a whiff of Munich in the air” – a reference to an agreement with Hitler that failed to prevent World War Two.
Mr Wallace also said that an attack remained highly likely and it could come “at any time”.
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