The US State Department announced on Monday February 28 that it had “
suspended operations
” at the US Embassy in Minsk, Belarus, and “
authorized the voluntary departure
” of its non-essential staff and families from its embassy. in Moscow, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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"
We took these actions due to security concerns stemming from the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine
," US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said in a statement.
"
We have no higher priority than the safety of American nationals
," he said.
Belarus has held a referendum that eliminates the obligation for the former Soviet republic allied with Russia to remain a "
nuclear-free zone
", a change denounced by Westerners.
The United States had already closed its embassy in Kiev in the face of the imminence of an armed Russian intervention, and has been urging its fellow citizens for weeks to leave Ukraine.
A small diplomatic team in charge of Ukraine operates intermittently from Lviv in the west of the country, near the border with Poland.
The State Department had also called on the Americans in mid-February to immediately leave Belarus, where the Russians had massed soldiers.
The US embassies in Minsk and Moscow were already idling after a series of reciprocal expulsions of diplomats that sometimes date back several years.
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