A new escalation to come. Russian diplomacy on Monday called on foreign nationals living in kyiv, including diplomatic staff, to leave the Ukrainian capital before further bombings by the Russian army.
This announcement comes after particularly massive Russian strikes targeting Ukraine this weekend, particularly kyiv, 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.
“Decision centers” soon targeted
New “strikes will be carried out on decision-making centers” and “companies of the military-industrial complex” in kyiv, warned the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release, 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.
The head of Russian diplomacy Sergey Lavrov on Monday urged the United States to evacuate its embassy in kyiv during a telephone conversation with American Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
He “drawn his attention” to this statement from his ministry “recommending the United States, as well as other states with missions in kyiv, to ensure the evacuation of their diplomatic personnel and their nationals from the Ukrainian capital,” said the press release from the Russian ministry.
“Don’t give in to blackmail”
For his part, head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Andriï Sybiga, called on kyiv’s partners “not to give in to Russian blackmail” and to provide more aid and arms to Ukraine.
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 Strarobilsk (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 killed 21 people and injured more than 40 others. This “bloody attack” and “deliberate” is “the straw that breaks the camel’s back”, justified the Russian ministry.
Of menacing precedents on 9-Mai
The Ukrainian Army General Staff said its forces had bombed several Russian military sites that night, including a unit “headquarters” located “in the zone” of Starobilsk. The Russian press, for its part, published the testimonies of survivors and relatives of the teenagers killed in this attack.
Russia had already called on foreign diplomatic personnel to leave the Ukrainian capital before the May 9 parade on Red Square in Moscow, threatening Ukraine with reprisals if it disrupted the commemorations of the victory over Nazi Germany.
American President Donald Trump then announced at the last minute a temporary ceasefire between the two countries.
