Russia and the US said they would begin evacuating staff from their embassies and consulates in Ukraine on Saturday as western leaders engaged in a flurry of last-ditch diplomacy to convince Moscow to withdraw military forces from around the country’s borders.
The US state department has ordered “most US direct hire employees” to leave Kyiv on Saturday “due to the continued threat of Russian military action”, the embassy said.
Passport and visa services have been suspended and the US will offer emergency assistance from the western city of Lviv, according to a state department official. A skeleton team will remain in Kyiv to maintain contact with the Ukrainian government.
The US and UK are also pulling military advisers out of the country, although the British ambassador Melinda Simmons said she would remain in Kyiv.
US officials reiterated their warning to American citizens to leave Ukraine, after saying on Friday that Russia could launch a full-scale invasion as early as next week.
“US citizens in Ukraine should be aware that the US government will not be able to evacuate US citizens in the event of Russian military action anywhere in Ukraine,” the embassy said.
French president Emmanuel Macron spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin on Saturday in an effort to convince him to draw back Russian forces. US president Joe Biden was due to speak to him later on Saturday.
Putin and Macron agreed to pursue dialogue about resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have held sway since 2014, and about future stability and security in Europe, according to the Elysée Palace.
Macron told the Russian president that “a sincere dialogue was not compatible with an escalation”, the Elysée said.
French officials said Macron was seeking to keep Putin talking to avert military action by the Russians.
The Kremlin said Putin and Macron discussed “provocative speculations about planning for a supposed Russian invasion” the west’s provision of modern weapons to Ukraine and “creating pretexts for possible aggressive actions in the Donbas by Ukrainian armed forces.”
Putin accused the western of ignoring Russia’s demands that Nato roll back its eastward expansion and failing to push Ukraine to fulfil its obligations under the long-stalled Minsk treaty governing the Donbas peace process.
Putin then discussed Russia’s security demands and “certain bilateral issues” with Belarus’s strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko, the Kremlin said.
The ministry then summoned the US defence attaché over what it said was an incident involving a US submarine in Russian territory in the Pacific, it said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov “that a diplomatic path to resolving the crisis remained open, but it would require Moscow to de-escalate and engage in good-faith discussions”, according to the state department.
An invasion “would result in a resolute, massive, and united transatlantic response”, it said.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow had decided to “optimise” its staff at its Kyiv embassy and three consulates in Ukraine “out of caution over possible provocations from the Kyiv regime or third countries”.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky called for calm.
“Today, the best friend for enemies is panic in our country, and all this information, which only helps panic, does not help us,” he said, speaking from the southern region of Kherson, bordering Russian-occupied Crimea. “As a state, we must rely on ourselves, first of all, on our military, on our citizens. And we must be ready any day.”
Outside the US embassy in Kyiv diplomatic vehicles were being packed and driven away, while food was delivered to staff working there.
Halyna Hayduchuk, a Ukrainian artist who had gone to the embassy to collect work being displayed there, said she was shocked by the US move.
“I hope this is just a muscle-flexing exercise,” she said. But if Russia did invade “we will not surrender. We have nowhere to run and hide,” she said.
Germany on Saturday called on its citizens to leave Ukraine. The foreign ministry said it was temporarily closing Germany’s consulate in the eastern city of Dnipro, and relocating it to Lviv. Its embassy in Kyiv will remain open.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to visit Kyiv on Monday before meeting Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.
Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, spoke with Sergey Shoygu, Russia’s defence minister, about “Russia’s force build-up in Crimea and around Ukraine”, according to the Pentagon.
He also ordered the departure of a group of 160 US troops — members of the Florida national guard — who were serving as military advisers to Ukrainian forces.
“Abundance of caution, safety and security of our personnel [is] his paramount concern,” John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, tweeted.
The Pentagon said the troops would stay in Europe to “provide flexibility in assuring allies and deterring aggression”.
British troops who have been training Ukrainian forces will leave this weekend, armed forces minister James Heappey told the BBC.
Zakharova said Russia suspected the US and UK “know about some sort of military actions being prepared in Ukraine that could significantly complicate the security situation”.
Though the White House believes Putin has not made a final decision, Russia has built up more than 130,000 troops along its border with Ukraine and in neighbouring Belarus, as well as weaponry that could be used for an assault on Kyiv.
Additional reporting by Guy Chazan in Berlin and Victor Mallet in Paris