The Foreign Office said it has ‘temporarily’ moved its diplomatic operation in Ukraine to the west of the country with fears growing over the prospect of a Russian incursion (Efrem Lukatsky/PA)
(Picture: AP)The UK ambassador to the Ukraine will “temporarily” relocate to the west of the country amid fears of an imminent Russian invasion.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) announced on Friday evening, the embassy will move to Lviv, in the west of the country.
In a statement the FCDO said: “The British embassy office in Kyiv is temporarily relocating.
“Embassy staff are operating from the British embassy office in Lviv.”
The FCDO has also warned against all but essential travel to Belarus and the Transnistria region of Moldova, which both neighbour Ukraine.
The department added that any Russian military action in Ukraine would hinder the UK’s ability to provide assistance to the state.
Boris Johnson will also head to Germany on Saturday to join leaders at the Munich Security Conference.
Ahead of the meeting, the Russian defence ministry said it would hold drills involving its nuclear forces.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin however, claimed the exercises are purely defensive and did not represent a threat to Ukraine.
This comes as Moscow-backed separatists in the east of the country announced an evacuation of their breakaway region’s residents to Russia.
Announcing the evacuation on social media, Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said Russia had agreed to provide accommodation for those who leave.
Two videos were posted on Friday by Russia-backed separatists announcing an immediate evacuation of civilians from Ukraine's tense border regions.
However, metadata of the two videos showed they were prepared two days ago, as opposed to Friday.
The video by Mr Pushilin, head of the Donetsk rebel government, said Russia has prepared facilities.
Mr Pushilin alleged in the Telegram video statement posted on Friday afternoon that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was going to order an imminent offensive in the area.
Leonid Pasechnik, head of the Luhansk rebel government, posted a similar video on his own Telegram channel on Friday afternoon.
Telegram retains metadata, which includes by default the date a file is created.
US authorities have alleged that Russia has planned an invasion all along, and said the Kremlin had planned pre-recorded videos as well as part of a disinformation campaign.
Western officials now believe up to 190,000 military personnel are now surrounding Ukraine, amid fears an invasion could soon be launched.
While Russia has offered refuge for some Ukrainian separatists, Michael Carpenter, US ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, warned the number of Russian troops is now approaching levels not seen since the Second World War.
He told a meeting of the monitoring group that the Russian troop build-up had grown significantly from the estimates of 100,000 Russian troops at the end of January.
“We assess that Russia probably has massed between 169,000-190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine as compared with about 100,000 on January 30,” he told the meeting, which Russia did not attend.
“This is the most significant military mobilisation in Europe since the Second World War.”
The Ukrainian intelligence agency has said it has information “about the mining of a number of social infrastructure facilities in Donetsk” by Russian forces, amid fears a false flag incident may spark a conflict.
#DIUinforms
— Defence intelligence of Ukraine (@DI_Ukraine) February 18, 2022
‼ The DIU of the State Security Service is authorized to state that the military intelligence of Ukraine has information about the mining of a number of social infrastructure facilities in Donetsk by Russian special services in order to further undermine them.1/3 pic.twitter.com/uBoHHDrNRS
