Jan 24, 2022: The US has ordered the families of all United States personnel at the embassy in Ukraine to leave the country amid concerns that Russia, which has troops stationed on the border, is about to attack.

In a statement Sunday, the State Department also said that unnecessary embassy staff could leave Ukraine at government expense and that all Americans should consider leaving immediately.

Russia’s military activities have raised growing concerns in Washington and other Western capitals that it is planning to invade Ukraine after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 while Moscow has insisted it has no plans to attack. The U.S. embassy in Kyiv warned that “military action by Russia could come at any time and the US government would not be in a position to evacuate American citizens in such an emergency situation so we have to plan accordingly. “

Speaking on Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected calls for immediate economic sanctions on Russia, saying that doing so would reduce the West’s ability to prevent any possible Russian aggression against Ukraine.

“When it comes to sanctions, the purpose of those sanctions is to deter Russian aggression. And so if they are triggered now, you lose the deterrent effect,” Blinken told CNN in an interview on Sunday.

When asked if US hands were tied over Ukraine because of a need for Russian support in talks on reining in Iran’s nuclear programme, Blinken told CBS News: “Not in the least.”

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told The Washington Post he supported imposing sanctions now, a view endorsed by Republican legislators on Sunday.

On Saturday, the first shipment of the US’s $200 million military support package for Ukraine arrived in Kyiv, the US embassy said.

Russia’s foreign ministry on Sunday rejected a British claim that the Kremlin wanted to replace the Ukrainian government with a pro-Moscow administration under former Ukrainian lawmaker Yohann Murayev. Murayev, a leader of a small party with no seats in parliament, denied the allegations.

He denied having any contact with Russian intelligence officers and dismissed the idea that he could be in league with the Kremlin as “stupid”, given he was placed under Russian sanctions in 2018.

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