KYIV URGES CITIZENS TO LEAVE RUSSIA AS FEARS MOUNT FOLLOWING UKRAINE CRISIS.
Ukraine has urged its citizens living in Russia to leave the country immediately amid growing fears of war. In addition to the order affecting more than three million people, Ukraine mobilized its military reserves and was set to declare a state of emergency.
Ukraine’s moves came as Russian troops, ordered into two rebel-held regions in eastern Ukraine, were reportedly edging closer to the border. Russia has begun evacuating its embassy in Kyiv and lowered its flag there. Western countries have announced a series of sanctions against Russia for recognizing the so-called people’s republics of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine as independent states and ordering troops in for peacekeeping operations, a claim that has been rejected by the UN Secretary-General and decried as nonsense by the West. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said Russia’s latest actions marked the beginning of an invasion.
