German Foreign Ministry: Germans must leave Ukraine

DrThe German Foreign Ministry has tightened its travel warning to Ukraine in light of the escalation of the conflict with Russia. “German citizens are urgently required to leave the country now,” the foreign ministry said on its website on Saturday. “Military conflict is possible at any time,” the statement said.

This is an obvious tightening. So far, the ministry has only asked these Germans to leave the country “in a short time” whose presence was not “extremely essential”. “Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have escalated due to the massive presence and movement of Russian military units near the Ukrainian border,” she added.

The German Foreign Ministry warned that “in the event of a Russian attack on Ukraine, the options for supporting German citizens are very limited.” All Germans still in Ukraine were again asked to put their names on the crisis prevention list issued by the German Foreign Ministry.

Attack “in the coming days”

Lufthansa suspended flights to Ukraine from Monday to the end of February. A Lufthansa spokesman said there would remain a few flights on Saturday and Sunday to enable people to leave Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden said earlier in a televised speech at the White House that he expected Russia to attack the neighboring country in the “coming days”. He said he was “convinced” that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin “has already made” the decision to launch the attack.

According to Biden, the US government also assumes that the Russian armed forces will target the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, among other things. This was the US president’s clearest statement yet on the suspected attack plans Putin. Previously, the US government had always stated that the Russian president, in its estimation, had not yet made a final decision on the attack.