Washington – The Biden administration is sending a group of US diplomats to the US embassy in Kyiv to coincide with Russia’s Victory Day on May 9, when the country marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in the World War II, four U.S. officials told CBS News.
The return of diplomats to the embassy is intended to underscore the failure of Russian President Vladimir Putin to capture the capital of Ukraine, despite his annoyance. war of attrition in the south and east of the country is underway. State Department sources said the embassy hopes to resume operations at the embassy in Kyiv and raise the American flag there in the coming weeks.
The move is part of a US effort to counter Russian propaganda around the conflict, which the United States expects to see from the Kremlin on May 9, another US official told CBS News.
“The Russians will do their best to use the date in terms of their propaganda efforts,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters last Monday. “I’m pretty sure you’ll hear more from the United States, from our partners, including our NATO partners, also on May 9.”
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Putin falsely claims that the invasion of Ukraine, which he has called an ongoing “special military operation”, is an effort to get the Nazis out of power there.
The Biden administration withdrew U.S. diplomats from Kyiv on February 12 to avoid the risk of possible fatalities threatening to lure the U.S. directly into the conflict.
U.S. diplomats were first evacuated to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, closer to the border with NATO ally Poland before the Russian invasion on February 24. , and then were expelled from the country as the war intensified. Embassy staff began day trips to Lviv early last week to work with their Ukrainian counterparts from there. Russian forces withdrew from Kyiv and the surrounding region in early April.
President Biden will join a call on Sunday with other G7 world leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Camilla Schick contributed to this report.
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