Families of U.S. embassy personnel in Ukraine have been ordered by the State Department to begin evacuating the country as soon as Monday.
Other Americans will be urged next week to leaving Ukraine by commercial flights “while those are still available”, one official told Fox News.
The evacuation concerns come as Ukraine announced the first shipment of ammunition from the U.S. on Friday.
Fox News reported that “small arms ammunition constitute the bulk of the 200,000 pounds of what the State Department is calling lethal aid – needed by Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines”.
Officials also explained that “Javelin anti-tank missiles are expected to arrive early next week from the Baltic states and from U.S. military stockpile”.
The U.S. embassy in Kiev tweeted Friday, “The shipment — and $2.7 billion USD since 2014 — demonstrates U.S. commitment to helping Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of growing Russian aggression”.
The Russian military has placed advanced fighter jets in Belarus, north of Ukraine, creating fears within the Pentagon that Kiev is “now in the crosshairs,” one official said.
“The West has rejected Moscow’s main demands,” Fox News reported, including “promises from NATO that Ukraine will never be added as a member, that no alliance weapons will be deployed near Russian borders, and that it will pull back its forces from Central and Eastern Europe”.
The U.S. government has plans to move weapons and ammunition into Ukraine over the coming days.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been speaking with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. On Friday, though there were no breakthroughs, they agreed to continue negotiating diplomatically. They are set to speak again after the U.S. submits a formal response to Russia’s demands.