US hasn’t ‘actually moved any troops’ at this point, Defense secretary says
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the decision by the United States and United Kingdom to withdraw some staff from their embassies in Kyiv was a “mistake.”
“I think it was a mistake,” Zelensky told foreign journalists in Kyiv on Friday. “I say this openly.”
“The signals that we were getting from the diplomats, these nonessential staff, I don’t think so. Under these circumstances, everyone is essential. Everyone should stay, to be honest,” Zelensky added.
The Ukrainian president went on to give Greece as an example, which had kept its diplomats in Mariupol, a city on the frontline in eastern Ukraine.
“In the city of Mariupol, which is on the contact line, where the contact line is very close, where you can hear cannons fire, the Greeks didn’t take anyone away,” Zelensky said. “Everyone is looking at this everyone understands which countries of EU respond to how the Britain, how the United States react.”
Zelensky added that he thought US and British diplomats should stay in Kyiv, comparing them to ship captains, who in his view should be the last ones to leave.
“These are the captains of the diplomatic corps, they’re the representatives of their respective countries,” he explained. “And the captains are the last who should be leaving the ship.”
“I don’t think we have a Titanic here; Ukraine is moving forward,” he said.
