France Moving Embassy from Kyiv to Lviv

France is moving its embassy from Kyiv to Lviv, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced Monday.

"We have decided at the request of the President of the Republic to transfer our embassy, which until now has been in Kiev, and because of the risks and the threats on the Ukrainian capital, the embassy is transferred to Lviv towards the west,” Le Drian told CNN affiliate BFMTV.

Moreover, Le Drian indicated that the ambassador shall remain in Ukraine to support their nationals and also the Ukrainian authorities.

“Threats were important enough to relocate,” Le Drian added, noting that this step comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin put deterrence forces, including Russian nuclear forces on alert.

"It’s a threat that he had already made on Feb. 24 when he announced the first operations. It’s a threat that he has just renewed," he said. "It’s a threat of escalation which makes no sense and that goes against the commitments made very publicly by Russia to measure major strategic risks at the beginning of 2022.”

The Foreign Minister has previously noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to remove Ukraine from the map.