The Office of the President has reacted to the statement by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas regarding whether foreign diplomats remained in Kyiv following threats and calls from the Russian Federation for diplomatic personnel to leave the Ukrainian capital, UNN reports.
Details
Presidential Communications Advisor Dmytro Lytvyn, in a comment to journalists, called the situation "strange," noting "that Ukraine is seemingly expected to provide an interpretation of the EU diplomatic chief's words regarding the United States."
"Perhaps it referred to the circumstances before that strike on Sunday night, who knows; we heard that American diplomats left Kyiv then. In any case, Ukraine is grateful to all embassies that are working in Kyiv and supporting Ukraine,"
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that "information regarding the departure of the US Embassy in Kyiv is not true."
Context
As reported by the EEAS press service, on May 28, before a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers, when asked to characterize the threat as Russia once again threatened Europe and Kyiv, also stating that diplomatic personnel should leave Kyiv, Kallas told journalists: "This is what Russia does. Because it is not really gaining ground on the battlefield. So, what they are doing now is really increasing the terrorist attacks, because you cannot really describe it in other ways: creating fear inside the society. It has not worked for four years, but I do not think that it is going to work now. Also, what we heard from Ukraine yesterday was that all the embassies stayed, except one, so that also takes courage from those embassies, but yes, all the European stayed, America left."