Hundreds of Israelis who were stuck in Ukraine amid fears of Russia's invasion appear to be rushing back to Israel, with many landing in the Jewish state over the weekend.
Russia's military has more than 100,000 troops massed near Ukraine, and U.S. has warned the Russians could invade at any moment. Moscow, which has repeatedly denied it plans to invade and said it is responding to aggression by NATO allies, has dismissed those warnings as "hysteria".
Chen Frenkel landed late on Saturday from Ukraine where he was visiting his father who works there. "I was scheduled to return," he said, "but I admit I am worried about my father. I've asked him to return to Israel in case Putin decides to invade."
He said, however, he did not see signs of panic in Kiev.
Among his fellow passengers on the same flight, were tourists on pre-planned vacations, and Israelis – some of whom admit they were worried about the outbreak of a war.
"I've been watching Israeli media," said Ronen Steiner who had spend the last days near the border with Russia. "But Ukraine's media reports are not indicating imminent war," he said.
"Maybe local Ukrainians are ignoring the danger or perhaps the media is misreporting," he said.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday, called on Israelis to leave Ukraine immediately because of growing tension and the American warnings that a Russian invasion was imminent.
The Foreign Office said they were preparing to extract the 15,000 Israelis currently in that country after they issued a severe travel warning urging Israelis to avoid Ukraine all together and return home.
Israeli airlines have increased their flights to that country in order to transport Israelis home, although one recent arrival said he would have gladly stayed on for an additional month.
"The Ukrainians are strong," Eduard Evorotzky said. "They will know how to solve the problem, like Israel knows how it must solve its problems with the Arabs. The atmosphere on the streets and life in general is good," he said, adding that he returned to Israel for work.
Dima Kuperman was on a ski trip in Ukraine and spent the last few days of his stay in Kiev. "I heard the government was calling on citizens to return, but I already booked the flight," he said. "There is some tension on the streets but nothing major.
"There is more concern in Israel than in Kiev and any pressure I had came from listening to news from home and not from the local media," he said.
The deputy Israeli ambassador to Kiev, Yoav Bistritzky, put his family on a flight home on Sunday, after a directive from the Foreign Ministry.
"Our families are evacuating today along with other representatives of the state, but the diplomatic staff is staying on and the embassy is operating as usual and will provide services to the thousands of Israelis here who may need them," he told Ynet.
"The decision to evacuate the families came after long weeks of deliberations and information gathered from many sources. We understand that we must take particular precautions," he said.
"It is true that live in Ukraine is proceeding as usual with restaurants, movie theatres, public transportation, airline travel and more, operating fully but Israel is responsible for its own citizens.
"All things considered, there are indications from NATO and the United States, so we are doing the right thing to evacuate Israelis," he said.
Thus far some 5,000 Israelis have registered with the embassy incase of need for an extraction, but the diplomat estimates the number of Israeli nationals currently residing in Ukraine is threefold.
He said the embassy is prepared for the need to bring Ukrainian Jews to Israel.
"It is no secret that we have excellent relations with both Ukraine and Russia and hope that diplomatic efforts to avoid confrontation succeed," he said.