Security conditions in Crimea and along Ukraine’s border with Russia could change “with little to no notice” amid heightened tensions and a military build-up in the region, the US embassy in Kiev warned.
The embassy sent the warning Thursday morning, after President Biden abandoned his plans to send two warships to the Black Sea and then Russian President Vladimir Putin closed the Kerch Strait to foreign warships until next fall.
“Watch out for US citizens,” the warning posted on Twitter, began. “The United States of America 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 notice.”
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 increasing military presence near Ukraine.
It then backed out of that threat after the Kremlin warned the US to leave the area “for its own good.”
“We don’t want to be in an escalating war with Russia,” a senior government official told reporters during a briefing call on Thursday, adding that they did not want the situation to “get out of hand.”
The official added that the government believed it could “avoid” sending the US into a “downward spiral.”
Still, government officials said the US “will not accept its destabilizing behavior that harms the United States, its allies and partners.”
Putin’s closure of the area came just hours after Biden declared a national emergency on Thursday, imposing sanctions on more than three dozen people in Russia and expelling ten diplomats.
Biden foreshadowed the sanctions in a call to Putin on Tuesday when he warned the Russian strongman that “the United States will act decisively in defense of its national interests in response to Russia’s actions, such as cyber-burglaries and electoral interference.”