US State Department orders non-emergency employees in Kiev embassy to leave

The US State Department has told non-emergency personnel at its embassy in Ukraine to leave due to reports of Russian troop build-up near the border with Ukraine and "potential for significant military action," the US embassy in Kiev said Saturday.

"Today, the @StateDept ordered non-emergency US employees at the Embassy to depart due to continued reports of a Russian military build-up on the border with Ukraine, indicating potential for significant military action," the embassy tweeted.

The core team of US diplomats will stay in Ukraine, however, the embassy said.

"Despite the reduction in diplomatic staff, the core embassy team, our dedicated Ukrainian colleagues, and @StateDept and US personnel around the world will continue relentless diplomatic and assistance efforts in support of Ukraine's security, democracy, and prosperity," a tweet read.

On Friday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that Washington was "continuing to reduce Kiev Embassy footprint."

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow might too temporarily pull out its non-essential diplomatic personnel from Ukraine as it was troubled by the evacuations of US and UK diplomatic staff which he said looked as if they were preparing "for something." Earlier on Saturday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia decided to "optimize" the diplomatic staff in Kiev out of precaution in case of possible provocations by Ukraine or third countries, but the core personnel will stay and continue their work.

The US and several NATO countries have been pumping Kiev with weapons in recent weeks, alleging that Russia is planning to invade Ukraine, which Moscow denied.

( With inputs from ANI )

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