Russian diplomacy on Monday called on foreign nationals living in kyiv, including diplomatic staff, to leave the Ukrainian capital before further Russian bombings. What his leader Sergei Lavrov repeated to his American counterpart Marco Rubio during a rare call.
New “strikes will be carried out on decision-making centers” and “companies of the military-industrial complex” in kyiv, his ministry warned, without giving a precise time frame before these attacks. “We warn foreign nationals, including staff of diplomatic missions and representations of international organizations, of the need to leave the city as soon as possible, and residents of the Ukrainian capital not to approach military and administrative infrastructure,” he added.
Russian blackmail
Despite this warning about kyiv, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is traveling to India, stressed Tuesday that “the United States (was) ready and willing to do everything in its power to facilitate the end of this war, and we “Hopefully the opportunity will present itself at some point.” The administration of US President Donald Trump pushed for an end to the fighting by organizing rounds of negotiations between the two camps in Abu Dhabi, as well as in February in Geneva.
But since then, the tripartite discussions have been de facto frozen even though Moscow and kyiv both say they are ready to resume them. Progress towards an end to the conflict is slow, particularly due to differences over the territorial question. The announcement of upcoming Russian bombings in the Ukrainian capital comes after particularly massive Russian strikes targeted Ukraine during the weekend, particularly the capital, leaving at least four dead and around a hundred injured. Russia fired a latest generation missile, the Orechnik, for the third time since the start of the conflict.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Andriï Sybiga, for his part called on kyiv’s partners “not to give in to Russian blackmail” and to provide more aid and arms to Ukraine. Ukraine where, on the night of Monday to Tuesday, Russian strikes targeted Odessa and killed a 45-year-old man, according to an official from the military administration of this city in the south of the country.
“And still bleeding”
France, for its part, brushed aside the Russian warning. “We are used to threats from Putin. “There is no question of evacuating” our diplomats, commented the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, questioned by journalists. Russian diplomacy mentions in its press release the strike by Ukrainian drones which targeted the dormitory of a high school in Starobilsk (Starobelsk in Russian), in the Lugansk region occupied by Moscow in eastern Ukraine, during the night from Thursday to Friday.
According to Moscow, this strike destroyed a dormitory where dozens of teenagers were sleeping, killing 21 people and injuring more than 40 others. This “bloody attack” and “deliberate” is “the straw that breaks the camel’s back”, justified the Russian ministry. The Ukrainian Army General Staff said its forces had bombed several Russian military sites that night, including a “headquarters” of a unit located “in the zone” of Starobilsk.
