The U.S. State Department updated its travel warning for Ukraine this week, backing off a recommendation that U.S. citizens currently in Crimea and the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk leave the area. The warning posted Wednesday a
The old and new warnings are shown here:
The reason for the change is unclear. Aside from the opening paragraph, the warnings remained largely the same with a couple of notable exceptions. The June warning included this caution (emphasis added):
The new warning changed the wording regarding the checkpoints to a “limited number of operational checkpoints.”
Further, the old warning noted that “[t]here have been multiple casualties due to land mines in areas previously controlled by separatists…” The new warning adds that “both sides of the contact line are mined.”
When asked what prompted the updated warning, a State Department official replied, “Travel Warnings are reviewed every six months or more often when circumstances warrant. We regularly update Travel Warnings to communicate as clearly as possible the most important information to U.S. citizens, so they are able to make informed decisions about their personal security and travel plans.”
The change came just before the European Union decided to extend sanctions against Russia for the lack of progress in implementing the Minsk agreement in the conflict. According to the White House, Vice President Biden spoke to Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman Thursday, expressing “…strong support for the Ukrainian Government’s decision today to unilaterally release 15 individuals taken prisoner during the conflict, expressing hope that Russia and Russian-backed separatists would respond in kind to this goodwill gesture and give momentum to the prisoner exchange process stipulated in the Minsk agreements.”
