Ukraine’s security council has declared a nationwide state of emergency, a top security official has said, as Vladimir Putin boasted of the battle-readiness of Russia’s armed forces and Joe Biden warned of an impending full-scale invasion of the country.
Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov said that Ukraine would introduce a 30-day period of emergency in a ramping up of precautions as Russian troops and blood supplies headed to frontlines in what US officials said were ‘plans for war’.
It came as Russia began evacuating diplomatic staff from Ukraine after President Putin boasted of Russia’s preparedness and ‘advanced weapons’ including hypersonic missiles in a saber-rattling speech. Putin, speaking on Defender of the Fatherland Day which marks the first mass draft into the Red Army in 1918, congratulated the armed forces on their ‘professionalism’ and said he was assured they would stand up for the country’s national interests – which he said are ‘non-negotiable’.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has advised Ukrainian citizens to “refrain from visiting the Russian Federation” for any reason. “Those currently in the country should leave its territory immediately,” the advisory released on Wednesday read. The statement said that those who didn’t follow the instructions risked “a significantly higher difficulty” in being protected by Kiev.
The ministry had previously suggested that Ukraine should cut all diplomatic ties with Russia in response to the latter’s recognition of two breakaway regions in the east of the country as sovereign states. On Tuesday, Russia ordered the evacuation of its diplomatic staff from Ukraine, citing threats received by the Russian Embassy.
A number of other nations have moved their diplomats to the western part of Ukraine, citing a risk of military escalation between Russia and Ukraine. Last weekend, the US advised its citizens in Russia to prepare for possible evacuation, claiming they risked falling victim to unspecified “attacks” there. Its embassy cited “media sources” as the reason for the warning, but it was not clear which ones.
