The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has not received from the Russian side information about the evacuation of employees of diplomatic institutions of the Russian Federation from Ukraine and, in turn, does not plan to evacuate its diplomats from Russia. This was reported to UNN by the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleg Nikolenko.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not received information from the Russian side on the evacuation of employees of diplomatic institutions of the Russian Federation from Ukraine. Embassies of other states in Ukraine have also not reported any intentions to evacuate their staff. For its part, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is not planning yet to evacuate Ukrainian diplomats from the Russian Federation," Nikolenko said.

According to the representative of the Foreign Ministry, the embassy in Moscow, the consulates general in St. Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don, the consulates in Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk are currently operating in Russia in a normal mode.

"Despite the difficult conditions, our diplomats and consuls continue to successfully carry out the tasks assigned to them, first of all to protect the interests of Ukrainian citizens in Russia," he added.

Earlier, the U.S. edition of The New York Times, citing a representative of Ukrainian security services, reported that Russia had begun evacuating diplomats and their families from Ukraine.

According to US and Ukrainian officials, the downsizing of the Russian embassy might be "partly propaganda, partly preparation for an imminent conflict or partly a ploy", the newspaper said.