U.S. reportedly moves Ukraine embassy staff to Poland

(Image credit: Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)

published 22 February 2022

All remaining U.S. State Department personnel in Ukraine were evacuated to Poland on Monday, Bloomberg reports, in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin sending troops to two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.

President Biden has warned for weeks that Putin planned on invading Ukraine, citing intelligence and the fact that Russia spent the last year moving troops to the border with Ukraine; it's estimated there are about 190,000 now in place. Late last month, the State Department reduced staff levels at the embassy in Kyiv and evacuated the families of employees, before temporarily relocating the embassy to Lyiv in western Ukraine.

Several U.S. officials told Bloomberg the personnel are staying at a hotel just over the border with Ukraine, so if the security situation seems stable on Tuesday, it will be easy for them to return. While personnel are in Poland, all embassy and consular activities will continue, the officials said, and Ukrainian employees will likely receive extra assistance, including advances on their salaries.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.