Ambassador, staff of Finnish embassy leave Ukraine

The Ambassador of Finland and all Finnish citizens employed by the Finnish mission in Kyiv on Thursday have left the country for security reasons following Russia’s military attack on Ukraine, said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a press release.

The mission will continue to operate under exceptional arrangements.

The locally employed Ukrainian staff will support the Embassy’s work as far as possible. The safety of the mission’s staff is given priority, and they have been offered the opportunity to leave Kyiv.

The mission has closed its customer service and the reception of visa and residence permit applications by the external service provider have been suspended until further notice.

Earlier, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on 22 February decided to relocate its staff temporarily from Kyiv to Lviv based on an overall assessment of the security situation in Ukraine.

Finland has previously reduced the number of employees posted to work at the Embassy of Kyiv.