Mayor of Kiev: the world must help us now | Abroad

Russian President Vladimir Putin aspires to world power, according to the mayor “and the West should know that after Ukraine it will be the turn of the Baltic states. We are just the beginning.” When German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other heads of state talk to Putin, they need to make one thing clear: “Our whole country will defend itself against an attack and that will have serious consequences,” Klitschko said.

Scholz wants to meet Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky in Kiev on Monday. He will travel to Moscow on Tuesday to meet Putin.

Klitschko, ex-world boxing champion, said on a talk show in early February: “When the military aggression starts, I’ll grab an assault rifle and fight for Ukraine.”

US OSCE personnel must leave Ukraine

The United States has also called on US staff on the OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine to leave the country over the threat of a Russian invasion. Earlier, the US called on all Americans to leave the country and that travel advice also applies to American employees of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) present, a spokesman for the State Department said Saturday (local time).

Hundreds of OSCE international observers have been stationed in Ukraine since March 2014. They oversee the ceasefire signed between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian soldiers, especially in eastern Ukraine. It is the largest security mission in OSCE history.

Australia closes embassy in Kiev

Australia will close its embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kiev as a Russian invasion seems imminent, Australian media report. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said that given the deteriorating security situation in the region, the government has decided to temporarily suspend all activities in the embassy and ordered the staff to leave.

The country is moving its activities to a temporary office in Lviv, a town in western Ukraine near the border with Poland.

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