The threat of Russia invading Ukraine has been ever-present, but now it has a chance of starting World War III, because of a recent quote by U.S. officials.
“As U.S. officials grew convinced this month that Russia might invade Ukraine, they implored American citizens to leave the country immediately — and added a grim addendum. No rescuers would be coming for those who stayed behind, they said,” Journalist Michael Crowley, diplomatic correspondent in the Washington bureau wrote in an article titled U.S. Warns Americans Abroad Not to Count on a Rescue published on Feb. 16.
This is not the first time that Americans have been in a situation where they may have no chance of rescue from the U.S. The same thing happened last year in August, when American citizens were trapped in Afghanistan after America worked to pull troops out of the country. Many people had to wait in a country where at any moment they could have been killed, but they were at least helped via an evacuation effort led by the U.S. This time, however, U.S. officials are refusing to do an emergency evacuation should the occasion arise and are instead just telling people to leave.
Should Russia actually invade Ukraine and one of their troops kill an American citizen who did not manage to escape the country in time, that could potentially bring the start of World War III. The stakes are higher than ever before in the event that a potential war arises, but rather than doing everything the United States government can do to avoid this, they instead are leaving it up to the people to leave themselves, regardless of their ability to do so. This statement by the U.S. officials does not account for the possibility of some people not having the funds or means to get out of Ukraine in time.