Putin may come under more pressure as US orders citizens to leave Russia

 

The United States has directed its citizens to consider leaving Russia immediately as the hostilities between Moscow and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies over the invasion of Ukraine reached one week.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the State Department said a special flight would be deployed to Russia to evacuate Americans in the country as more countries closed their airspace to Russia after the country’s invasion of its neighbour.

The US embassy in Moscow had earlier advised Americans in the country to have an evacuation plan, citing the threat of attacks in Moscow and along the Russian border with Ukraine.

“US citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available,” a security alert dated February 27 posted on the website of the US embassy in Moscow read.

The US and its allies including the United Kingdom, Canada and France have imposed stiff sanctions on Russia over the invasion which has been described as the largest assault on a European nation since World War Two.

The directive is part of Washington’s move to discredit Russia as unsafe under President Vladmir Putin, who is unrelenting in his push for a full-scale war after he vowed to demilitarise Ukraine with his now infamous “special operation.”

With many countries withdrawing their citizens and closing their airspace to Russia, the exit of Americans is another masterstroke US is relying on to force Russians to pile pressure on Putin to withdraw the country’s troops from Ukraine.

For President Joe Biden, the safety of Americans in Ukraine towers above other considerations at this period after the Russian dictator put nuclear deterrent forces on alert in case the current hostility snowballed into a full-scale war.

The development could also be a bad omen for the Russian economy and force more companies to close shops as the tension escalate.