Ukrainian Journalist to Ned Price: Why Is U.S. Evacuating Kyiv, 500 Miles from Russian Border?

A Ukrainian journalist asked State Department Spokesperson Ned Price why the U.S. was evacuating personnel in the capital city of Kyiv, which is 500 miles from the border with Russia, and whether that meant the capital was a target of invasion.

Price was evasive in his response.

Reporters peppered Price with questions about the decision by the Biden administration to withdraw the family members of American staff at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv.

As Breitbart News reported on Monday:

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine on Monday dismissed the U.S. State Department’s withdrawal of the families of U.S. embassy staff in Kyiv as “premature” given the lack of “drastic change” in tensions between the country and Russia.

The State Department announced it would withdraw the families of staffers and encourage private American citizens in Ukraine to leave because of an alleged imminent threat of invasion of the country by Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine nearly a decade ago, in 2014, and continues to colonize Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula to this day.

A Ukrainian journalist asked whether, since Kyiv is “far enough” from the Russian border — about 500 miles from the disputed Donbass region, according to Google Maps — the U.S. expected the capital to fall.

Price would not comment on U.S. intelligence, but called the evacuation of diplomats’ families a “prudent step because of continued Russian efforts to destabilize the country.”

He also refused to provide specifics on what U.S. and Russian diplomats were discussing in negotiations over Ukraine.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.