update(2:43pmET): The White House is now telling Americans in Ukraine to get out of the country “immediately” – giving a 24 to 48 hour time frame to make a safe exit. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan urged all US citizens in Ukraine “to depart immediately.” The number of Americans in the country is often estimated in the tens of thousands – likely somewhere around 30,000 – including dual citizens.
“We want to be crystal clear on this point. Any American in Ukraine should leave as soon as possible and in any event, in the next 24 to 48 hours,” Sullivan said. “We obviously cannot predict the future. We don’t know exactly what is going to happen, but the risk is now high enough and the threat is now immediate enough.” If they stay, Americans “are assuming risk with no guarantee that there will be any other opportunity to leave and no prospect of a US Military evacuation in the event of a Russian invasion,” he added.
“It is the time to leave now,” he said. “We are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time should Vladimir Putin decide to order it.”
He also in the afternoon press briefing said it’s US intelligence’s belief that Putin could launch an invasion by the end of the Olympics…
“We continue to see signs of Russian escalation including now forces arriving at the border. As we’ve said before, we’re in the window when an invasion could begin at any time should Vladimir Putin decide to order it. I will not comment on the details of our intelligence information but I do want to be clear, it could begin during the Olympics, despite a lot of speculation that it will only happen after the Olympics.”
As oil spiked and markets tumbled, there was this to follow all the panicked warnings coming out of the White House… “but an official says the U.S. doesn’t know whether Russia has decided either way,” according to the WSJ.
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Though it’s unclear what precisely on the ground has actually changed, President Biden is urging all Americans in Ukraine to “leave now”. “American citizens should leave now,” Biden said while discussing the Russian troop build-up threatening Ukraine in a new NBC News interview.
The president warned that “things could go crazy quickly” in the region and so it’s necessary that US citizens initiate plans to depart the country immediately. He further described in the interview set to air in full later in the day, “It’s not like we’re dealing with a terrorist organization. We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. It’s a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly.”
However, elsewhere in the interview he suggested that it’s anything but certain that President Putin has made his intentions clear. Biden told NBC that if if Putin “foolish enough to go in, he’s smart enough not to …do anything that would negatively impact on American citizens.”
Earlier this week the Pentagon revealed plans to stage a logistics operation along the Polish-Ukrainian border, just inside Poland, that would assist in any potential large-scale evacuation of US citizens from Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion. Biden addressed the possibility further with NBC:
Biden said during his NBC interview that “there’s not” a situation that could prompt him to send US troops to rescue Americans attempting to exit Ukraine, adding, “That’s a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another.”
Already some 2,000 additional US troops have been sent from Fort Bragg and Germany to Poland in order to put in place the necessary logistics for an evacuation.
Meanwhile, the US State Department is still warning against all American travel to Ukraine. Further it re-issued a travel advisory from last month citing “increased threats of Russian military action” which makes it necessary for US citizens to depart.
President Joe Biden said on Thursday #US 🇺🇸 citizens should leave #Ukraine 🇺🇦 now due to the “increased threats of Russian military action” against the country.
The warning comes after #Russia and #Belarus launched joint military drills on Thursday ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/thTlCtGLEW
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) February 11, 2022
The advisory warns Americans they must “be aware that the US government will not be able to evacuate US citizens in the event of Russian military action anywhere in Ukraine.”
Without doubt, the US administration still has the Afghan evacuation deadly debacle looming in the background. There’s still said to be US citizens and dual nationals stuck in Taliban-run Afghanistan as a result of efforts which were too little, too late.
US thinks it can run the world with this CEO at the helm… https://t.co/IQTp2uZkHu
— Ron Paul Institute (@RonPaulInstitut) February 11, 2022
Ukraine’s government has at the same time sought to cool the Washington rhetoric, saying it’s causing unnecessary panic within Ukraine’s population. Likely Kiev will not be too happy with Biden’s latest words telling Americans to depart the country, which Zelensky himself has said is premature and overly alarmist.
