Skopje, 13 February 2022 (MIA) – About a hundred Macedonian nationals are currently in Ukraine, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has several plans on different activities and different scenarios that could take place in the coming period in that country, Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani told Sunday’s press briefing on latest developments in foreign policy. There are four categories of nationals of North Macedonia in Ukraine – the first category includes the ambassador and another diplomat at the Macedonian Embassy in Kiev, and their families. Because they are essential embassy staff and there’s no decision so far to close the Embassy, Osmani noted, the diplomats will remain in Ukraine until further notice, however it has been decided that their families return to Skopje early next week. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in agreement with Bulgaria and should there be a need to withdraw the two diplomatic staffers, a full plan has been set on how to organize evacuation. It has also been decided that about 30 observers from North Macedonia remain in Ukraine for the time being within the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission. According to the Foreign Ministry’s mapping, they are within the second category of nationals of North Macedonia. “The OSCE mission is important to monitor developments in Ukraine, and that is why there’s no decision for now to withdraw our observers. However, we’re in close coordination with other participant countries, the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, and further decisions will follow accordingly. For the time being, only the United States decided to withdraw their observers as part of the OSCE mission, but not other countries,” the Foreign Minister said. The third category includes about 40 nationals of North Macedonia who are currently located in Ukraine due to different reasons, and about 30 members of their families, most of whom, however, are nationals of Ukraine. “For our nationals I will reiterate the Ministry’s call from two days ago – use the opportunity to leave the country and return to North Macedonia via commercial flights. The public call to the nationals of North Macedonia located in Ukraine to leave the country was the first of our plans,” Osmani said, adding that some of the plans are starting to be set in place based on close communication between the Foreign Ministry and the allies last week. “While exchanging information, it became more likely that escalation, i.e. Russian invasion of Ukraine was possible, which is why some of the plans prepared for different scenarios got to be set in place. We do not want to instill uncertainty and fear in terms of the measures we’re taking over the Ukraine situation, we’re in full coordination with our allies, both within NATO and the EU, and we do all that based on plans and information we have,” Osmani said, pointing out that the Foreign Ministry continues to closely monitor the situation, and that NATO seeks a diplomatic solution to prevent escalation of tensions.