During this afternoon’s State Department press briefing, the Biden administration shed some more light on its decision to evacuate the U.S. embassy in Kyiv and move its operations to Lviv, in Ukraine’s west. The move is a matter of geography, said Ned Price, the department’s spokesman.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the decision to relocate the embassy from the Ukrainian capital today amid public warnings from top Biden officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, that Russia could begin an attack at any time. The Wall Street Journal subsequently reported that “the State Department ordered the destruction of networking equipment and computer workstations and the dismantling of the embassy telephone system” and that embassy personnel and sensitive documents were flown into Washington over the weekend.
Sullivan last week described what the opening stages of a Russian assault on Ukraine might look like: “If a Russian attack on Ukraine proceeds, it is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill citizens without regard to their nationality. A subsequent ground invasion would involve the onslaught of a massive force with virtually no notice,” he said.
Price was asked today whether U.S. diplomats would be any safer in Lviv than in Kyiv, because Russia could be planning an assault that involves air strikes and a ground invasion from different points surrounding the country. And he was asked if the move to Lviv was intended to pretend that the U.S. still had a presence in the country.
“It’s a matter of geography, and Lviv’s location, of course, affords it a degree of protection that other places in Ukraine may not have,” said Price. “The buildup of forces on Ukraine’s eastern borders, the buildup of forces along its northern border with Belarus, of course, that has implications for large swaths of Ukraine including Kyiv.”
Lviv is at the Western edge of the country, about 50 miles from the Polish border, while Kyiv might be one of the main focuses of a ground invasion. Russia has in recent weeks surged its troop presence in Belarus, where it is conducting joint military exercises that some observers worry are the prelude to an attack.
U.S. officials are not aware of a threat specific to American personnel in Ukraine, Price said.
“What we do know is, given the capabilities that the Russians are poised to deploy, should President Putin make that decision, that incursion into Ukraine could entail massive violence, massive destruction, and the loss of life would not discriminate between Americans, Ukrainians, others,” he said.
President Biden on Thursday night told U.S. citizens in Ukraine to leave the country.
Price also elaborated on the steps the U.S. is taking to facilitate the evacuation of Americans from Ukraine during today’s briefing.
“Even in recent hours, we provided additional guidance to American citizens on the ground in Ukraine, telling them specifically which border crossings they should use, facilitating their access through engagement with our Polish allies, and will help them across the Polish border on an expedited basis.”
The U.K., the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and others have made similar announcements. According to reporting by Axios’s Barak Ravid, Israel’s announcement telling its citizens to leave Ukraine resulted from intelligence shared by Washington.