In view of the intense tensions in the Ukraine crisis, the US State Department has called on US citizens in Belarus to leave the country "immediately".
"US citizens who are in Belarus should leave the country immediately, whether commercially or privately," the amended travel advice said on Monday evening.
The situation was unpredictable "due to an increase in unusual and worrying Russian military activity."
Previously, the US government had only advised, in less harsh language, to regularly reassess exit plans in case of emergencies.
Travel to Belarus has already been advised against – the highest risk category 4 still applies. Most recently, the State Department had ordered family members of US government employees to leave Ukraine’s northern neighbor.
Russia is also massively increasing its troops in Belarus on the Ukrainian border.
"We are deeply concerned"
The US State Department also adjusted its travel advice for Moldova - also a neighboring country to Ukraine.
Here, too, the ministry added "unusual and worrying Russian military activity around Ukraine."
Hazard category 4 still applies. Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine itself lie between the Eastern European NATO countries and Russia.
"We are deeply concerned that Russia may take action against Ukraine as early as this week," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told France24.
"Everything we see regarding the deployment of Russian forces around Ukraine, on all sides of Ukraine, leads us to this conclusion." Instead of de-escalating, Russia is escalating and moving more and more troops to the Ukrainian border.
But the path of diplomacy is not blocked.
Everything is being done to persuade Russia to take the path of dialogue.
The United States in particular has been warning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine for weeks.
To this end, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers were gathered not far from the Ukrainian border.
The Kremlin regularly denies the allegations.
According to the government in Kiev, it has no such information about an imminent attack.