MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has started evacuating citizens from Lebanon and a special flight left Beirut on Thursday with the family members of Russian diplomats, Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov said.
About 60 people will arrive in Russia from Lebanon on Thursday, his ministry said.
“The evacuation is carried out on the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin,” the ministry said.
Russia often also helps evacuate citizens from other former Soviet republics in such situations.
Israel, which has been fighting with Hamas in Gaza for almost a year, has sent its troops into southern Lebanon after two weeks of intense airstrikes, in an escalating conflict that risks drawing in the United States and Iran.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Trevelyan)
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