The State Department on Sunday ordered the families of all American personnel at the United States Embassy in Ukraine to leave the country amid heightened fears of a Russian invasion.

Britain's Foreign Ministry also said Monday it was withdrawing some staff and their relatives from its embassy in response to the "growing threat from Russia". The embassy itself will remain open for "essential work", it said.

According to The Associated Press (AP), the State Department told the dependents of staffers at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv that they must leave the country. It also said that nonessential embassy staff could leave Ukraine at the government's expense.

The move came amid rising tensions about Russia's military buildup on the Ukraine border that were not eased during talks Friday between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva.

State Department officials stressed the Kyiv embassy will remain open and that the announcement does not constitute an evacuation. The move had been under consideration for some time and does not reflect an easing of U.S. support for Ukraine, the officials said.

In a statement, the State Department noted recent reports that Russia was planning significant military action against Ukraine. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry has accused NATO countries of escalating tensions around Ukraine with disinformation.

"Military action by Russia could come at any time," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement. Officials "will not be in a position to evacuate American citizens in such a contingency, so U.S. citizens currently present in Ukraine should plan accordingly," it added, according to Reuters.

The State Department added: "The security conditions, particularly along Ukraine’s borders, in Russia-occupied Crimea, and in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine, are unpredictable and can deteriorate with little notice. Demonstrations, which have turned violent at times, regularly occur throughout Ukraine, including in Kyiv."

The department's travel advisory, which had warned against traveling to Ukraine because of COVID-19 as well as the tensions over Russia, was changed Sunday to carry a stronger warning.

"Do not travel to Ukraine due to the increased threats of Russian military action and COVID-19. Exercise increased caution in Ukraine due to crime and civil unrest. Some areas have increased risk," the department advised.

The travel advisory for Russia was also changed: "Do not travel to Russia due to ongoing tension along the border with Ukraine, the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens, the embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, COVID-19 and related entry restrictions, terrorism, harassment by Russian government security officials and the arbitrary enforcement of local law."

The State Department would not say how many Americans it believes are currently in Ukraine. U.S. citizens are not required to register with embassies when they arrive or plan to stay abroad for extended periods.

Earlier, CNN, citing sources, reported that the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv asked the State Department to allow all nonessential personnel and their families to leave. Subsequently, one of the Fox News journalists wrote on Twitter that the department ordered the evacuation to begin on Monday, Jan. 24.

The State Department's announcement comes a day after British authorities said they had information the Russian government was considering a former Ukrainian lawmaker as a potential candidate to head a pro-Russian leadership in Kyiv.

The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the British allegation as "disinformation," accusing NATO of "escalating tensions" over Ukraine.

Earlier, the German publication Bild claimed that Berlin was also planning to evacuate diplomats, but the authorities denied this. Last week, The New York Times, citing a senior Ukrainian security official, reported that diplomats at two Russian consulates had been ordered to prepare to leave Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Russian Embassy in Kyiv is working as usual

European Union foreign ministers sought Monday to show a fresh display of resolve in support of Ukraine, as Ireland warned that new Russian war games off its coast are not welcome given tensions over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to attack Ukraine.

"All members of the European Union are united. We are showing unprecedented unity about the situation in Ukraine, with the strong coordination with the U.S.," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Brussels.

Asked whether the EU would follow a U.S. move and order the families of European embassy personnel in Ukraine to leave, Borrell said: "We are not going to do the same thing." He said he is keen to hear from Blinken about that decision.

Arriving at the EU meeting in Brussels, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said he would inform his counterparts that Russia plans to holds war games 240 kilometers (150 miles) off Ireland’s southwest coast, in international waters but also within the country’s exclusive economic zone.

"We don’t have a power to prevent this happening but certainly I’ve made it clear to the Russian ambassador in Ireland that it’s not welcome," Coveney said. "This isn’t a time to increase military activity and tension in the context of what’s happening with and in Ukraine."

"The fact that they are choosing to do it on the western borders, if you like, of the EU, off the Irish coast, is something that in our view is simply not welcome and not wanted right now, particularly in the coming weeks," he added.

Troops and sanctions

U.S. President Joe Biden has begun considering options for boosting America's military assets in the region, senior administration officials said, after meeting with top national security aides at his Camp David retreat on Saturday.

The New York Times said Biden was mulling plans to send 1,000 to 5,000 troops to Eastern European countries, with the possibility of increasing the number should tensions flare further.

A senior administration official declined to confirm the numbers on Sunday but said "we are developing plans and we are consulting with allies to determine options moving forward."

The U.S. has sent military assistance to Ukraine but has so far held back from sending American personnel. Blinken has rebuffed calls to immediately impose economic sanctions on Russia, saying on Sunday that doing so would undercut the West's ability to deter potential Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Blinken was due to meet virtually with members of the European Union's Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday. He will brief EU foreign ministers on his talks on Friday with Lavrov in Geneva, where the two sides agreed to keep working to ease tensions but failed to secure a major breakthrough to calm the escalating crisis, as Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Blinken has committed to provide a written response this week to Moscow after it laid down a series of security demands that would stop Ukraine from joining NATO and roll back Washington's influence in Eastern Europe.

EU foreign ministers gathering in Brussels will look to sound out the U.S. over its plans as Europe frets it has been left on the sidelines of discussions about its own security arrangements.

A senior administration official said U.S. economic penalties on Russia would have far-reaching consequences should it drive any further into Ukraine. The U.S. would use the Foreign Direct Product Rule to restrict the export to Russia of products incorporating microelectronics based on U.S. equipment, software or technology.

Another EU official working on the sanctions told AFP that Europe's huge oil and gas imports were seen as possible leverage. But one European diplomat said that complaints led by Germany appeared to have taken a proposal to sever Moscow from the global SWIFT payment system off the table. Ukraine over the weekend took a swipe at Berlin's refusal to supply arms to Kyiv and hesitation over SWIFT, accusing it of "encouraging Putin."

Britain has promised stiff sanctions, with British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab telling the United Kingdom's Sky News there would be "very serious consequences if Russia takes this move to try and invade."

British officials say they have information the Russian government was considering former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevhen Murayev as a potential candidate to head a pro-Russian government in Kyiv. Murayev poured cold water on the notion.

"This morning I already read in all the news publications this conspiracy theory: absolutely unproven, absolutely unfounded," Murayev told Reuters in a video call and added he was considering legal action.

He denied having any contact with Russian intelligence officers and dismissed the idea that he could be in league with the Kremlin as "stupid," given he was placed under Russian sanctions in 2018.

Although he said he wants Ukraine to be independent of Russia as well as the West, Murayev, has promoted some views that align with the Kremlin's narratives on Ukraine.

The British Foreign Ministry declined to provide evidence to back its accusations.

In a message to Reuters, Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian adviser to the Presidential Office, said there was doubt among Ukrainians as to whether Murayev was "too ridiculous a figure" to be the Kremlin's pick to lead Ukraine. But Russia had propped up previously minor figures in leadership positions in annexed Crimea and separatist-held eastern Ukraine, he added.

Therefore "one should take this information as seriously as possible," he said.

'Low-level conflict'

Kyiv is already fighting a low-level conflict with Russian-backed rebels controlling a chunk of the east of the country that has claimed 13,000 lives in the past eight years. Some within the EU fear it is being ignored in the current crisis as Moscow focuses on its talks with the U.S. and NATO in a move reminiscent of the Cold War era.

But there has been pushback, especially from eastern members, against a proposal from French President Emmanuel Macron that the bloc should open its own security talks with Russia.

A draft statement from the foreign ministers seen by AFP is set to state that the EU will "actively and substantially contribute to discussions within the existing frameworks."