Nine botanists from the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry, the world's largest seed bank at that time, had starved themselves to death while trying to preserve their collection from Nazi forces that surrounded Leningrad.
The US Embassy in Ukraine would continue to function, and Kristina Kvien, in charge at the embassy, would remain in Ukraine. The department further added it was working on finding a diplomatic solution to Russia’s “troubling build-up of forces in and around Ukraine.”
Ukraine received its first shipment of 2 lakh pounds of lethal assistance recently directed by US President Biden amid soaring fears of a Russian invasion.