NEW YORK, February 16. /TASS/. US authorities have temporarily relocated the employees of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from Kiev, The New York Times reported on Tuesday citing sources.

According to the sources, the CIA station was "temporarily relocated" from Kiev on Tuesday. These measures were undertaken following the announcement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the US Embassy in Ukraine was temporarily relocating from Kiev to Lvov, the newspaper notes.

The daily does not reveal the new location of the CIA station. According to its sources, the relocation of the CIA employees may complicate gathering intelligence on Russia’s alleged "activity" in the country.

Lately, Ukraine and the West have been increasingly echoing claims of an alleged possible Russian "invasion" of Ukraine ever more frequently. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded such information as an "empty and groundless" escalation of tensions, emphasizing that Russia does not pose 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.