In a travel advisory to Indians, the Indian embassy in Kiev has advised its citizens to leave Ukraine temporarily in view of the continued high levels of tensions and uncertainties. Family members of the Indian embassy staff too have been asked to return to India.
“In view of the continued high levels of tensions and uncertainties with respect to the situation in Ukraine, all Indian nationals whose stay is not deemed essential and all Indian students, are advised to leave Ukraine temporarily. Available commercial flights, and charter flights may be availed for travel, for orderly and timely departure,” read the Indian Embassy statement. The advisory further asked Indian students to contact the associated persons for flights back to India.
“Indian students are advised to also get in touch with respective student contractors for updates on charter flights and also continue to follow Embassy Facebook, website and Twitter for any update,” added the statement. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was still on his agenda. “I reached out to my Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov, to urge that we meet next week in Europe. The plan is still to do that unless Russia invades in the meantime,” Blinken said in an interview to CNN. He added that the talks were expected to be focused on possible mutual steps in security. “That’s the conversation I welcome having with Foreign Minister Lavrov but depends entirely on whether Russia invades,” Blinken said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced o Sunday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would speak with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian on Monday.
The United States and Ukraine accuse Russia of planning to invade. But Moscow continues to deny such claims and maintains that it has no intention of attacking any country.