NEW YORK, January 22. /TASS/. A possible evacuation of the family members of US diplomats from Kiev would be an "overreaction" to the situation around Ukraine. According to a source close to the Ukrainian government, this opinion was expressed by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in a conversation with US State Secretary Antony Blinken, CNN reported on Friday.
The TV channel did not report Blinken’s reaction to these remarks.
Meanwhile, according to another CNN source, the US has informed Ukraine that it was "likely to start evacuations as early as next week" of the families of diplomats from the embassy in Kiev. The embassy also has requested that the State Department authorize the departure of all nonessential staff.
Earlier on Friday at a regular briefing for journalists, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the US Department of State was planning for the possibility of the evacuation of the Americans from Ukraine as it is done when "any security situation deteriorates in any country around the world." She added that the US authorities were not advising US citizens to visit Ukraine.
Lately, in the West and Ukraine, the claims of an alleged possible Russian "invasion" into Ukrainian territory are being touted increasingly more often. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded such information as the empty and groundless escalation of tension, emphasizing that Russia does not represent a threat to anyone. That said, he didn’t exclude the possibility of provocations being whipped up in order to justify such claims and warned that attempts to resolve the problem in southeastern Ukraine through the use of force would have the most serious consequences.