Staff evacuating the US embassy in Kiev took apart and destroyed computer systems and communication equipment used by diplomats, reportedly fearing it could end up in the hands of Russian forces after a potential invasion, just before Moscow announced that it was withdrawing some troops from near the Ukrainian border.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that officials were “temporarily relocating our embassy operations in Ukraine from our embassy in Kiev to Lviv due to the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces.” Lviv is in western Ukraine, further from Russia and Belarus, where Russian forces have gathered recently for joint military exercises.
The Wall Street Journal reported that State Department officials had said the evacuation involved destroying much of the hardware in the embassy, including “networking equipment and computer workstations and the dismantling of the embassy telephone system.”
Commenting on the withdrawal, officials said that they would remain “engaged” with Ukraine and that staff would return to Kiev “as soon as conditions permit.”