You're reading: US State Department warns Americans against travel in Crimean, eastern Ukraine

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer all non-essential travel to Ukraine and to defer all travel to the Crimean Peninsula and eastern regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lugansk due to the presence of Russian military forces in the Crimean Peninsula, and in Russia near the Ukrainian border.  Russia is taking actions in support of its attempt to annex the Crimean Peninsula and is likely to continue to take further actions in the Crimean Peninsula consistent with its claim.  The United States and Ukraine do not recognize this claimed annexation, and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv is constrained in its ability to provide assistance to U.S. citizens visiting or residing in the Crimean Peninsula.  This supersedes the Travel Warning for Ukraine dated March 7 and Emergency Message dated March 14, 2014, to provide updated information on the situation in the Crimean Peninsula and the eastern regions of Ukraine.

 Read the statement here