The European Union summoned Russia’s top diplomat in Brussels after Moscow warned foreign citizens and diplomats to leave Kyiv ahead of what it described as renewed strikes on the Ukrainian capital.
“Russia’s threat to foreign citizens and diplomats to leave Kyiv is an unacceptable escalation,” EU spokeswoman Anitta Hipper said in a statement posted online on Tuesday, adding that the Russian envoy had been told Moscow must “stop hitting civilians.”
The move came after Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that its forces were beginning “systematic strikes” on Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities in Kyiv and on what it called “decision-making centers.”
The ministry simultaneously urged foreign nationals and diplomatic staff to evacuate the city.
Shortly after the warning, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a phone call that Washington should evacuate diplomats from the US Embassy in Kyiv, according to the Kremlin.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha dismissed Moscow’s warnings as “shameless blackmail,” saying the threats would not intimidate Western diplomats operating in the Ukrainian capital.
Meanwhile, EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova rejected Moscow’s calls for diplomats and foreign citizens to leave Kyiv, insisting Western missions would remain in the city despite mounting Russian threats.
In a Facebook statement published Monday, Mathernova called the Russian Foreign Ministry’s warning a “masterpiece of hypocrisy,” accusing the Kremlin of attempting to weaponize fear while continuing its 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.
Mathernova said the Kremlin’s messaging campaign was aimed at spreading panic but stressed it would fail.