The move comes amid a spike in shelling in the area, with tensions rising once again after the West disputed Moscow’s claims of a troop pullback.
Russian-backed separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine on Friday announced plans to move residents of their separated territory to Russia, raising fears that Moscow was planning to use escalation in the long-running conflict as a pretext for aggression. Was.
The move comes amid a spike in shelling in the region that has sparked new global alarm, after the United States and its allies disputed Moscow's claims of a troop from near its neighbor's borders at one time. Then the tension increased.
Moscow announced a massive exercise involving its nuclear forces starting Saturday, which will be overseen by President Vladimir Putin and a timely reminder of the country's nuclear prowess, as Europe faces its most serious security threat since the Cold War. facing crisis.
President Joe Biden said on Friday that the US believes Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, but stressed that Russia can still "choose diplomacy."
After a call with NATO and European leaders about the Russian offensive against Ukraine, Biden told reporters at the White House, "At this time, I believe he has made the decision. We have reason to believe it." " He cited US intelligence for his assessment.
"It's not too late to de-escalate and return to the bargaining table," Biden said.
According to a US defense official, Russia now has 40-50 percent of its military forces under attack around Ukraine. The soldiers are still several miles from the border, the official said, adding that they have reached this level of preparedness in the past 48 hours.
But on Friday, the center of world concern was eastern Ukraine.
The head of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" Denis Pushilin announced the evacuation in a video posted on social media. He claimed without evidence that Kiev was planning its military offensive on an area in the east of the country where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting government forces since 2014. Leonid Paschnik, the leader of the neighboring self-proclaimed "Luhansk People's Republic". a similar order.
Russian state media later reported that Putin had ordered payment of 10,000 rubles ($130), hot food and medical care to those crossing the border.
There was no evidence that Kiev was planning such an attack, and Ukraine says its forces have had to show restraint after an increase in ceasefire violations by Russian-backed separatists, they believe. It is a ploy to provoke Ukraine to retaliate.
"We categorically reject Russia's attempts to aggravate the already tense security situation," Ukrainian military chief Valery Zaluzny said in a statement. He added that Russia had launched a campaign to "spread massive propaganda, increase shelling on Ukrainian positions and augment civilian infrastructure with weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements, and escalate the security situation."
According to an Associated Press journalist present at the scene, his remarks came at the same time a car was destroyed in an explosion outside a government building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
According to the Interfax news agency, debris could be seen outside the offices of the "Donetsk People's Republic" and Denis Sinenkov, the head of the Donetsk rebels' army, said it was his car.
Later, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine was not planning any sabotage.
The US has warned for weeks of a "false flag" operation that Russia could use as an excuse to trigger an attack or incursion into Ukraine.
Ukraine's defense ministry later tweeted that it had intelligence that the Russian military had planted explosives in buildings in Donetsk, and urged people to stay home and not use public transport.
As hopes for a diplomatic solution to the crisis faded, the State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken would meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Europe next week - provided Russia does not attack its neighbor in advance.
Vice President Kamala Harris also reiterated US support for NATO and efforts to strengthen the group's security during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the German city of Munich.
"As members of NATO, we feel very strongly and will always remain committed to the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty," Harris said at the start of the meeting.
Harris met with a range of world leaders on Friday, and is set to participate in further talks at the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday. A senior administration official said she would meet with Blinken "several times" on Friday to coordinate the strategy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also set to attend the conference, but the Biden administration is concerned Putin will somehow take advantage of his absence, four people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
A spokesman for Zelensky said he was planning to attend but was "watching the situation, which is becoming more and more dramatic." He added that if there were "a dramatic escalation or some worrying message, he might change his mind."
A White House official said Biden hosted a call on Friday afternoon with NATO and European leaders to discuss "our continued efforts to build up Russia's military troops on the border with Ukraine and to advance deterrence and diplomacy." Of.
According to the White House description of the call, the group pledged to "continue to pursue diplomacy to reduce tensions while ensuring readiness to impose rapid, coordinated economic costs on Russia."
After the call, Biden said: "The bottom line is this: The United States and our allies and allies will support the Ukrainian people. We will hold Russia accountable for its actions. The West is united and determined. We are committed to implementing Ready for serious sanctions on Russia if it attacks Ukraine further."
Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, told reporters on Friday that the US believed Russia was responsible for the widespread cyberattacks against Ukrainian banks earlier this week.
"Despite the limited impact, this recent round of cyber attacks in Ukraine is in line with Russian efforts, and is laying the groundwork for a more disruptive cyber attack with potential further invasion of Ukraine's sovereign territory," Neuberger said.
The US is also going to announce that it is sending about 200 US troops and Stryker armored fighting vehicles to Hungary, two defense officials told NBC News. The group is in the European command area and will move in the coming days, said officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Ukrainian government troops have been fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014 - when Moscow annexed Crimea and threw its weight behind breakaway forces - in a fiery conflict that claimed nearly 14,000 lives.
The conflict has been watched closely on fears that it could become a source of potential escalation into a wider crisis. And this week, as Russia mobilized 150,000 troops around Ukraine's borders and the West said they saw no sign of a claimed pullback, violence escalated.
Moscow has consistently denied that it has any plans to attack its neighbour. It said on Friday it was closely watching the escalation of shelling in eastern Ukraine, describing the situation as potentially very dangerous.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said Moscow-backed separatists were "positioning their artillery systems near residential buildings" in the hope that Kiev's forces would return fire. A day earlier, Kiev said Russian-backed separatists were responsible for "a major provocation" after shelling a kindergarten in Ukrainian government-controlled territory.
"We are facing constant provocations, shelling, cyber attacks, dangerous aviation maneuvers, disabling mobile communications," Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told the country's parliament on Friday.
On the other hand, Russia-backed separatist forces reported more shelling by Ukrainian forces along the tense line of contact early Friday in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Ukraine's military chief, Zaluzny, replied that "our actions are purely defensive."
Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said they recorded almost 600 cease-fire violations in total Thursday, a huge spike compared with recent months.
As a policy the OSCE does not tend to attribute blame.