Security conditions in Crimea and along Ukraine’s border with Russia could change “with little or no warning” amid rising tensions and military build-up in the region, the US embassy in Kiev warned. .
The embassy sent the warning Thursday morning, after President Biden abandoned plans to send two warships to the Black Sea and Russian President Vladimir Putin subsequently closed the Kerch Strait to foreign warships until next fall.
“Attention to U.S. Citizens,” the warning, posted to Twitter, it began. “The U.S. embassy in Ukraine continues to monitor the situation with Russia in occupied Crimea and along Ukraine’s borders, where security conditions may change with little or no warning.”
The Biden administration initially said it would send two destroyers – the USS Roosevelt and the USS Donald Cook – to the Black Sea in response to Moscow’s growing military presence near Ukraine.
He later backed down that threat after the Kremlin warned the U.S. to move away from the area “for its own good.”
“We have no desire to be in an escalating war with Russia,” a senior administration official told reporters in a news briefing on Thursday, adding that they did not want the situation to spread. “out of control”.
The official added that the administration believed it could “avoid” sending the U.S. into a “downward spiral.”
Still, administration officials said the U.S. “will not accept its destabilizing behavior that harms the United States, its allies and its partners.”
The closure of the Putin area came just hours after Biden declared a national emergency on Thursday, slashing sanctions on more than three dozen people in Russia and expelling ten diplomats.
Biden foresaw sanctions in a call with Putin on Tuesday, when he warned the Russian strongman that “the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to Russia’s actions, such as cyber interference and electoral interference “.