EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova rejected Moscow’s renewed calls for foreign diplomats and citizens to leave Kyiv, saying Western missions will remain in the Ukrainian capital despite escalating Russian threats of further strikes.
In a Facebook statement on Monday, Mathernova described a recent report from Russia’s Foreign Ministry urging foreigners to leave Kyiv as a “masterpiece of hypocrisy,” criticizing what she called Moscow’s attempt to weaponize fear amid its ongoing war against Ukraine.
“A regime that has spent years bombing residential buildings, museums, maternity wards, schools and power stations now suddenly speaks the language of international humanitarian law and the Geneva conventions,” she said.
“The same regime that launches nightly missile and drone attacks on civilians now warns others to stay away,” she added.
Mathernova said Russia’s messaging was aimed at spreading panic, but stressed it would not succeed.
“The EU is not going anywhere. We are staying in Kyiv. We are staying with Ukraine,” she said.
“Threats against diplomats and international organisations are not a sign of strength. They are a sign of desperation.”
She added that increasingly aggressive rhetoric from the Kremlin only underscores Russia’s failure to break Ukraine’s resilience or weaken international support for Kyiv.
The comments came after Russia’s Foreign Ministry claimed that its forces were beginning “systematic” strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities in Kyiv and so-called “decision-making centres,” while urging foreign nationals and diplomatic staff to leave the capital.
In response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha dismissed the warnings as “shameless blackmail,” saying such rhetoric would not intimidate Western diplomats operating in Kyiv.