Foreign Office tells Britons to get out of Ukraine ‘while commercial means are available’

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Britons were tonight told to leave Ukraine immediately over concerns of a possible invasion by Russian forces that could begin within two days.

The Foreign Office updated its advice on Friday evening to tell UK nationals to ‘leave now while commercial means are still available’.

The urgent government advice to UK nationals changed less than 24 hours after a similar announcement by the US as western analysts feared that Vladimir Putin was about to send in the 130,000-plus troops massed on the borders of Ukraine. 

The European Union on Friday told non-essential staff from its diplomatic mission in Ukraine that they should leave the country, but has not issued an evacuation order, a spokesman said Friday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson also voiced fears ‘for the security of Europe’ during a call with world leaders including US President Joe Biden, whilst in a sign of the increasing tensions, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was yesterday involved in testy exchanges with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. 

The White House said that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could come within the week, possibly within the next two days, and urged Americans to leave the country now.

British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who is currently in Russia, warned an invasion could come ‘at any time’, echoing Washington’s warnings that the Kremlin has amassed enough troops at the border.

The FCDO advice changed to say: ‘British nationals in Ukraine should leave now while commercial means are still available. 

‘Since January 2022, the build-up of Russian forces on Ukraine’s borders has increased the threat of military action. The Embassy remains open but will be unable to provide in-person consular assistance. British nationals should leave while commercial options remain.’

A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘The safety and security of British nationals is our top priority, which is why we have updated our travel advice. We urge British nationals in Ukraine to leave now via commercial means while they remain available.’  

The Foreign office’s advice comes a day after US President Joe Biden urged all American citizens to leave the country. Japan, Latvia, Norway and the Netherlands also told their citizens to leave Ukraine immediately, while Israel said it was evacuating relatives of embassy staff. 

According to The Guardian, sources said the UK is not preparing an emergency airlift for British citizens because there are still commercial flights operating daily and the land border with Poland is open. 

It is believed that the number of British citizens in Ukraine is in the low thousands, but many have strong ties to the country and are unlikely to leave. 

Meanwhile, a senior official said that the US is sending 3,000 more troops to Poland, as President Biden met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders on Friday to brief them on developments.

The new wave of US troops join 1,700 who already are assembling there to support NATO allies. 

The official, who provided the information on condition of anonymity before an official announcement, said the additional soldiers will depart their post at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, over the next couple of days and should be in Poland by early next week. They are the remaining elements of an infantry brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division. A further 8,500 U.S. troops are already on alert.

It emerged soon afterwards that Western officials believe that Russia will invade next week, according to PBS reporter Nick Schifrin, while the head of Norway’s military intelligence service warned that Russia’s forces were now ready to invade as soon as Putin gives the order.

‘US officials anticipate a horrific, bloody campaign that begins with two days or aerial bombardment and electronic warfare, followed by an invasion, with the possible goal of regime change,’ he tweeted.

A diplomatic source said the strategy now was to intensify efforts to spell out the cost to Putin of invasion. 

‘The message has to be that he cannot win,’ the source told DailyMail.com.   

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States did not have definitive information that an invasion has been ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But he said all the pieces were in place for a major military operation that could start ‘rapidly’.

‘The risk is high enough and the threat is now immediate enough that prudence demands that it is the time to leave now,’ Mr Sullivan said.

‘We are not saying that a decision has been taken by President Putin,’ Mr Sullivan added.

‘What we are saying is that we have a sufficient level of concern based on what we are seeing on the ground, and what our intelligence analysts have picked up, that we are sending this clear message.’

He added that the possibility of an invasion taking place before the end of the Winter Olympics on February 20 is a ‘credible prospect’ and a ‘very, very distinct possibility’. 

He said new Russian forces were arriving at the border and they are in a position to ‘mount a major military operation in Ukraine any day now’, which could include a ‘rapid assault on the city of Kyiv’ or on other parts of the country.

Speaking from the White House, Mr Sullivan said Russia could choose ‘in very short order to commence a major military action against Ukraine’, but stressed the US does not know whether Mr Putin has made a final decision.

Mr Sullivan said the ‘threat is now immediate enough’ to urge Americans to leave Ukraine ‘as soon as possible and in any event in the next 24 to 48 hours’.

He did not mince words for those who choose to remain: ‘The president will not be putting the lives of our men and women in uniform at risk by sending them into a war zone to rescue people who could have left now but chose not to.’ 

Sullivan spoke shortly after Biden and six European leaders, the heads of NATO and the European Union held talks on the worst crisis between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War. 

In a call lasting around 80 minutes, Downing Street said Mr Johnson urged Nato allies to make it clear to Moscow there is a ‘heavy package of economic sanctions ready to go’.

‘The Prime Minister told the group that he feared for the security of Europe in the current circumstances,’ a No 10 spokeswoman said, in an account of the call that included French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, as well as EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel.

Mr Johnson warned that the penalties would be ‘extremely damaging’ to Russia’s economy and urged that allies must reinforce Nato’s eastern frontiers.

Russia is holding massive war games in neighbouring Belarus and insisting that the highly strained relations is not its fault. 

Moscow denies planning to invade Ukraine, but says it could take unspecified ‘military-technical’ action unless a series of demands are met, including promises from NATO never to admit Ukraine and to withdraw forces from Eastern Europe.

The West has said those main demands are non-starters. The EU and NATO alliance delivered responses this week on behalf of their member states.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it wanted individual answers from each country, and called the collective response ‘a sign of diplomatic impoliteness and disrespect’.

The U.S. is set to send 3,000 more troops to Poland in the coming days to try to reassure NATO allies, fource U.S. officials told Reuters news agency on Friday. 

Earlier, Mr Blinken outlined what he said were ‘very troubling signs of Russian escalation. 

‘We’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time – and to be clear, that includes during the Olympics,’ he said. 

Britain’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace today warned Russia that an invasion of Ukraine will have ‘tragic consequences’ as he continued the diplomatic blitz in Moscow.

He stressed the importance of keeping lines of communication open as he held talks with counterpart Sergei Shoigu.

At a press conference after the meeting Mr Wallace said he had been assured that Russia has ‘no intention’ of invading – but pointed out that the huge military build-up on the border meant it could do so ‘at any time’. 

He said he was becoming less optimistic about defusing the situation, observing that the ‘direction of travel’ was against a diplomatic resolution. 

But Mr Wallace also insisted there was ‘absolutely no deafness’ in his discussions, after Moscow’s foreign minister swiped about his ‘deaf and mute’ conversation with Liz Truss yesterday.   

The trip is the latest effort to turn down the temperature on the crisis and persuade Vladimir Putin to step back from the brink.

President Biden said the situation ‘could go crazy quickly’ and US troops will not be sent to help because that risks triggering a world war.  

The head of Norway’s military intelligence service said on Friday that Russia’s forces are in position and ready to invade Ukraine.   

The Russians ‘have all they need to carry everything out, from a minor invasion in the east to minor attacks here and there in Ukraine, or a complete invasion, with, possibly, an occupation of all or parts of Ukraine’, vice admiral Nils Andreas Stensones said.

‘Now, it is up to President Putin to choose if he wants to proceed or not’, he added.

Stensones made his remarks at the presentation of the Norwegian intelligence services’ annual threat assessment report.

According to him, Russia has ‘more than 150,000 combat troops’ massed at the Ukraine border, along with the country’s ‘most advanced weapons’ and all the necessary logistics.

‘It’s very difficult to say if (an offensive) is likely or unlikely, because it is solely up to the Russian president to make the decision’, he said.

U.S.-based Maxar Technologies – which has been tracking the buildup of Russian forces – said satellite images taken on Wednesday and Thursday showed large new deployments of troops, vehicles and warplanes at several locations in western Russia, Belarus and Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. 

According to the Military Times, 500 troop tents and hundreds of armoured vehicles were shown at Oktyabrskoye airfield – an abandoned airfield found north of Simferopol, the Crimean peninsula’s second largest city.

Other images showed training activities, artillery deployments and a new deployment in Slavne, also in Crimea.

And north of Ukraine in Belarus, military vehicles and helicopters were also identified at an airfield near Gomel, about 15 miles from its border with its southern neighbour.

Troops are also stationed near Rechitsa in Belarus, some 28 miles from Ukraine.

The satellite images also showed additional equipment had arrived at a Kursk training area in western Russia – a new development since Maxar began releasing images of Russia’s military build-up in December. 

Conflict has been festering in eastern Ukraine since 2014 between Russian-backed separatists and Kyiv forces.

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday warned again of the ‘real risk for a new armed conflict in Europe’.

Moscow has announced sweeping drills in the Black and Azov seas in the coming days and closed large areas for commercial shipping, drawing a strong protest from Ukraine on Thursday.

Russian naval forces and troops, including units brought in from all over the vast country, now surround Ukraine to the south, east and north. 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba voiced hope that the West would react to the Russian move, saying that ‘we have engaged our partners to prepare a coordinated response.’

Ukraine’s military chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, reported to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Friday that the authorities plan to quickly engage 1.5 million to 2 million people in training for the army reserve.

Russia’s troop concentration includes forces deployed on the territory of its ally Belarus for massive joint drills involving firing live ammunition. 

The UK has put 1,000 troops on standby in case of a humanitarian crisis in the east if the current Russian military build-up leads to war. 

It has also pledged extra help for NATO allies, with 350 Royal Marines arriving in Poland to coincide with the Prime Minister’s visit on Thursday.

Russia has insisted it has no plans to invade Ukraine but NATO is alarmed by the build-up of more than 100,000 troops on the borders with its neighbour.

Mr Wallace told a press conference on Friday afternoon: ‘I was clear about the tragic consequences that any invasion of Ukraine could have for all people – both Ukrainian, Russian and the security of Europe.

‘We listened to the assurances given by minister Shoigu that they would not invade Ukraine and we urged dialogue as a way through to address any concerns the Russian Government may have.’ 

But Mr Wallace said: ‘The disposition of the (Russian) forces that we see, over 100,000 in both Belarus and Ukraine, obviously gives that size of force the ability to do a whole range of actions, including an invasion of a neighbouring country at any time.

‘Mainly because of the readiness it is now at, it is an active, obviously, exercise, certainly in Belarus, and of course that is an option that those forces could have.

‘We obviously have made it very clear in Nato that an invasion would have tragic consequences, and we are here and I’m here today, for example, to seek a way of whatever we can to de-escalate that tension.

‘I heard clearly from the Russian government that they had no intention of invading Ukraine.’

In a downbeat assessment, Mr Wallace said: ‘I think the direction of travel has been against the direction of the diplomatic travel over the last few weeks.

‘We’ve seen continued build-up of forces as we’ve seen a build up of diplomacy, and you would hope that, actually… one goes up, one goes down – and I think that is why my optimism is not as (optimistic) as I used to be, or can be.

‘And I’m hoping that the beginning today is an effort to try and see if there is a way forward to make sure we do de-escalate.

‘We’ll keep trying. I think the international community is trying very hard – obviously President Macron’s visit, Prime Minister Johnson spoke to President Putin… recently as well. And indeed, I think the new Chancellor of Germany is coming to visit next week.

‘I think it is very important that we give the Russian government, give them all a chance to provide the reassurance they are seeking about the intentions of Nato, but also to give us the airtime to hear from them their assurances that they have no intention of invading Ukraine as well.’

He said there was ‘absolutely no deafness or blindness’ in his talks with Mr Shoigu, characterising them as ‘constructive and frank’ discussions which he hopes will create a better atmosphere between the two sides.

Asked about Mr Lavrov’s characterisation of his meeting with Liz Truss as a conversation between ‘deaf and dumb’, Mr Wallace said: ‘I think minister Lavrov is a master at these types of engagements and making those types of comments.

‘In our discussion there was absolutely no deafness or blindness, we as defence ministers bear the responsibility of the consequences of what happens in conflict.

‘We deal with the facts and we deal with the issues we have because it is in both our interests to resolve that.

‘I think we have had a constructive and frank discussion and I hope it has contributed to a better atmosphere but also to de-escalation, but there is still considerable way to go between the two of us.’

US President Joe Biden announced last week that he was sending 1,000 soldiers to Romania and 2,000 to Poland.

Those arriving in Romania are being transferred from a base in Germany.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron has also said he’s ready to send hundreds of troops to Romania under NATO command.

Romania, a NATO member since 2004, already hosts around 900 US troops, as well as 140 Italian and 250 Polish troops.

Bulgaria, Romania’s southern neighbour, said four Spanish Eurofighter Typhoon fighters arrived Friday as part of efforts to secure NATO’s eastern flank.

The aircraft with 130 Spanish personnel will be stationed at the southern Graf Ignatievo air base and ‘perform enhanced air policing tasks’ with the Bulgarian air force until March 31, the Bulgaria’s defence ministry said in a statement.

As a NATO member, Bulgaria is required to keep at least one squadron of 12 aircraft in good fighting order.

But the inability to maintain enough of its ageing fleet of Soviet-built MiG-29 fighters prompted Sofia in 2016 to authorise NATO to help protect its airspace.