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Ambassadors from Western countries, along with diplomatic teams – led by the United States – were pulled out of Ukraine last week. But not Cichocki. Some teams of more than 80 Polish diplomats have moved to the western city of Lviv, where they maintain a working consulate, or returned to Warsaw. But many remained by his side in the capital.
Still, during an interview with BuzzFeed News on Thursday, there were signs that Cichocki was concerned about the Russian threat. Outside his office door are helmets and bulletproof vests emblazoned with a red-and-white Polish flag patch. And he wears what he calls a “go bag” with “important documents” on his hip. His blood type was written with a permanent marker on his left arm.
“I don’t want to end up in the wrong coffin,” he quipped.
As he spoke, rockets hit the outskirts of Kyiv. “Let’s open the window so we can hear,” Cichocki said.
He pulled out his phone to check an app that was supposed to notify citizens when a Russian missile landed.
“I have this app, but it’s always two minutes late, which is a long time when the Iskanders arrive,” he said in reference to Russia’s short-range hypersonic ballistic missiles that have been used against Ukraine.
Cichocki said he was not asked, let alone told, by his superiors in Warsaw to leave Kyiv. “There are things that cannot be done from a distance,” he said, adding that he was still in touch “24/7” with members of the Ukrainian government and other Western diplomats.
“Leaving now is something to mitigate [Ukrainians’] spirit,” he said.
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