U.S. urges Americans to leave "now" as Ukrainian city far from Russian border braces for influx of evacuees
Lviv — With President Biden warning on Thursday that Russia was "moving toward an imminent invasion" of Ukraine, CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D'Agata said the message to Americans in the country could not have been any clearer: Get out before hostilities start.
"The situation could worsen very quickly, and we're very worried about that and are urging all Americans to leave the country now," Chargé d'Affaires Kristina Kvien, the most senior U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, told D'Agata.
Her call was made more urgent by satellite images appearing to show even more Russian forces, and a new pontoon bridge just a few miles from the border with Ukraine.
On Thursday, an American official told CBS News that not only were Russian troops moving out of assembly areas, closer to the Ukrainian border and into attack positions, but the Russian units remaining behind had begun fortifying their positions.
On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv shut down and relocated a core team to an undisclosed location in the western city of Lviv, close to the border with Poland.
"We're going to do everything we can to help American citizens," Kvien told D'Agata. She said the U.S. diplomats were working closely with humanitarian organizations "that might help with flows of not just Americans, frankly, but Ukrainians as well."
Families have already begun to flee eastern Ukraine. Natalia and Olexsii brought their young children to Lviv, about 300 miles from their home in Kharkiv, a city only about 30 miles from the Russian border.
Asked what made them decide it was time to get out, Natalia told D'Agata it was uncomfortable to sit at their home with two children and just wait for "something unusual" to happen.
It was "a worrying thing," she said.
Nobody in Lviv wants to see a war, but the city's mayor told CBS News they're ready.
Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said if there is a full-scale Russian invasion, Lviv is ready to take in anybody who needs help.
"It is my duty," he said, and the "responsibility of my city… I open my door, I open my... home."
The entire city is opening its home — but praying it doesn't come to that.
CBS News was told that city workers in Lviv had been encouraged to undergo training in firearms and medical treatment, and the city has stockpiled three months' worth of medical supplies.