KIEV, January 29 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine will evacuate another 24 nationals from Syria, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
Over 500 Ukrainians left Syria since July.
About 500 Ukrainian nationals remain in Syria at present, said Yevhen Perebiynis, acting director of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s Information Policy Department.
Russia last week evacuated 77 nationals from Syria, mostly women and children, in a move that prompted US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland to say that Moscow was losing faith in the Syrian regime.
Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has made a “grave, possibly fatal mistake," and his chances of retaining power are getting "smaller and smaller" every day. Medvedev warned, however, against a situation in which the current political elite in Syria would be swept away by military action, because the resulting civil war would last “for decades.”
Syria has been locked in an increasingly bloody civil war since demonstrations broke out against president Assad in March 2011. According to UN estimates, at least 60,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
