On Friday (February 25), the Embassy of the United States in Ukraine issued a travel advisory to stranded American citizens and informed them that the Biden administration cannot aid in their repatriation to the US from the war-torn country.
It stated, “The U.S. government will not be able to evacuate U.S. citizens from Ukraine. Please review what the U.S. government can and cannot do to assist you in a crisis overseas. U.S. citizens may seek consular services, including requests for repatriation loans, passport, and visa services, at U.S. embassies and consulates in neighbouring countries.”
The development comes at a time when more than 198 people have been killed in Ukraine, following the Russian declaration of a full-scale invasion.
Given that the United States government has no plans to evacuate its citizens, the US embassy has called upon stranded Americans to depart immediately from Ukraine using commercial or privately owned ground transportation services. As the Ukrainian airspace has been closed for commercial flights, at present air travel is not possible.
“U.S. citizens remaining in Ukraine should carefully monitor government notices and local and international media outlets for information about changing security conditions and alerts to shelter in place,” the travel advisory read. They also asked the US citizens in Ukraine to contact US embassies and consulates in neighbouring countries for various consular services, including requests for repartriation loan, passport and visa services.
The US embassy in Ukraine further added, “Those remaining in Ukraine should exercise increased caution due to the potential for active combat, crime, and civil unrest.”
‘Project Dynamo’ comes to the rescue
In the absence of governmental support, a Florida-based private volunteer group named Project Dynamo evacuated 23 or 24 US citizens/ legal US permanent residents from Ukraine.
James Judge, the spokesperson for Project Dynamo, informed that about two dozen legal US permanent residents and US citizens met at a pre-determined location and left Kyiv for a US embassy in a neighbouring country. He added, “The evacuation began minutes after our team on the ground physically felt the nearby explosions in Kyiv.”
He informed that the US authorities were notified about their evacuation mission in Ukraine but denied doing so at the behest of the government. “Project Dynamo, an all-volunteer, nonprofit group consisting mainly of U.S. military veterans, was founded last August to gain safe passage from Afghanistan for Americans after the Taliban seized power there,” reported Reuters.
The volunteer group evacuated more than 100 Americans from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover. It is estimated that there were 6600 Americans in Ukraine when Russia began military deployment at the border in October last year. However, State Department spokesman Ned Price informed that their total strength, as of date, in the war-torn country remains unknown.
Joe Biden administration had earlier deserted Afghan allies
President Joe Biden has faced flake from the lawmakers for ‘completing’ the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan, although some American citizens and Afghan allies remained stuck in the war-hit country last year. Many ‘abandoned’ US spies and allies were forced to join hands with the radical Islamist outfit ISIS.
An Afghan interpreter who saved Joe Biden in Afghanistan 13 years ago, pleaded with the US president to rescue him and his family. “Hello Mr President, Save me and my family,” begged Mohammed who chose to not give out his full name while speaking with Wall Street Journal.
After the Taliban took over the reins of Afghanistan, it came to light that the United States had left its allies in Afghanistan vulnerable to attack by the Islamist outfit. As per an exclusive report by Politico, the Biden administration had handed out a list of American citizens, Afghan allies, and green card holders to the Taliban so as to allow their evacuation from the Hamid Karzai International airport in Kabul.
Republican Congressman and former Afghan veteran Jim Banks informed, “We now know that due to the negligence of this administration, the Taliban has access to $85 billion worth of American military equipment. That includes 75,000 vehicles, over 200 airplanes, and helicopters, over 600,000 small arms, and light weapons. The Taliban now has more black hawk helicopters than 85% of the countries in the world.”
“They just don’t have weapons. They also have night-vision goggles, body armour, medical supplies…The Taliban now has biometric devices which have the fingerprints, eye scans, and the biographical information of the Afghans who helped us over the last 20 years…This administration has no plans to get the military equipment and supplies back,” he concluded.
Caretaker president of Afghanistan, Amrullah Saleh, had expressed disappointment at the manner in which western countries had conducted themselves. Despite being well aware that the Taliban has a history of killing US allies, the Biden administration did not care about putting their life in jeopardy.