Australia evacuates its embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, and calls on China not to remain silent

(Reuters) - Australia said on Sunday it had begun evacuating its embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, as conditions on the Russia-Ukraine border rapidly deteriorated, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison called on China not to remain silent about the crisis.

The United States and Europe escalated warnings that Russia might launch an imminent attack on Ukraine, while the Kremlin, seeking more influence in post-Cold War Europe, dismissed the joint EU-NATO diplomatic response to its demands to reduce tensions as disrespectful.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement that embassy staff in Kyiv had been instructed to move to a temporary office in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, about 70 km from the border with Poland.

"We continue to advise Australians to leave Ukraine immediately by commercial means," she added.

Australian Prime Minister Morrison said the situation had "reached a dangerous stage" and added that "the aggressive unilateral measures taken by Russia to threaten and bully Ukraine are totally unacceptable".

Morrison, whose government has frozen ties with China, called on Beijing to speak out on the Ukraine crisis after China criticized a meeting of the foreign ministers of the United States, Australia, Japan and India in Melbourne last week.

"The Chinese government takes pleasure in criticizing Australia... but remains eerily silent about the build-up of Russian forces on the Ukrainian border," he told a news conference.

"The coalition of authoritarian regimes that we are witnessing that seeks to bully other countries is not something that Australia takes a soft position on," he added.

Australia's relations with China, its largest trading partner, have been strained after Canberra banned Huawei Technologies from supplying 5G mobile network equipment in 2018, toughening laws against outside political interference and urging an independent investigation into the origin of COVID-19.