Russia is warning diplomats and foreign residents to leave Ukraine’s capital, saying it plans to launch strikes on the country’s military facilities and defense industries in Kyiv.
The evacuation order comes days after Moscow launched drone and missile attacks that killed at least four people and wounded dozens more in the area. The Kremlin said the strikes were in response to attacks on targets inside Russia-occupied Ukraine.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that he spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the upcoming attacks on Kyiv.
“Kyiv’s been a very dangerous place now for a number of years,” Mr. Rubio told reporters during his trip to India. “The danger in all of these wars as they continue and then they go on is that they always have the threat of escalation, of spreading into something new.”
Russia said the strikes will target “decision-making centers and command posts” along with facilities where Ukraine designs and manufactures drones.
“These [unmanned aerial vehicles] are used by the Kyiv regime with the assistance of NATO specialists responsible for supplying components, providing intelligence and targeting,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine called the Russian warning to foreign diplomats “nothing short of shameless blackmail.”
“Moscow is effectively admitting that its attacks are aimed, among other things, at intimidating the foreign diplomatic corps,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry officials said in a statement. “This admission will serve as valuable evidence in international legal proceedings against the aggressor state.”