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Mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko (archive image)
Photo: SERGEI SUPINSKY / AFP
US OSCE staff to leave Ukraine
7:58 a.m
.: The United States has also called on the American staff of the OSCE observer mission in Ukraine to leave the country in view of a possible threat of a Russian invasion.
The corresponding travel advice for US citizens from last week also applies to the US employees of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a spokesman for the US State Department said on Saturday.
According to Reuters news agency, US OSCE personnel began withdrawing from the city of Donetsk on Sunday.
There is no official confirmation of this from the OSCE.
Australia closes embassy in Kyiv
7.45 a.m
.: Australia has temporarily closed its embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kiev for fear of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Australian government has ordered the departure of embassy staff in Kyiv and temporarily suspended operations, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Sunday.
The operations of the embassy will be temporarily relocated to the city of Lviv in the west of the country near the border with Poland.
On Saturday, the United States announced that it would withdraw most of its embassy staff from Kiev.
Regular consular services at the embassy would be suspended from Sunday.
A few employees would be relocated to Lviv.
Other states are also reducing their embassy presence in Ukraine.
ala/AFP/dpa/Reuters
