US, Soviet diplomats pack up

The first American diplomats to be affected by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan live in Kiev, the third-largest city in the Soviet Union and the capital of the Ukraine.

Seven diplomats are accredited there. Together with family, Americans total 15 in all. Technically they formed an "advance party" and hoped to open a formal consulate later there.

But now all work on the new office is to be halted and the diplomats are to be withdrawn within one or two months. Leases will be kept on apartments, however.

The United States announced Jan. 8 that it was expelling 17 Soviet diplomats from New York City, where a corresponding consulate has been ready for action for some time to serve the estimated 900 Soviet citizens there. They range from diplomats to employees at aeroflot, in trade missions, and so on.