The United States said its embassy in Ukraine will remain open despite Russian warnings that diplomats who remain in Kyiv risk getting bombed.
“There are no changes to our operations and reports otherwise are false,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement on X. “The State Department has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans and regularly reviews the security posture of Embassy Kyiv.”
Russia’s foreign ministry on Monday urged foreign citizens and diplomats to leave Kyiv “as soon as possible,” warning they risked being hit by missile strikes on the capital city. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had warned him Kyiv was “going to be a very dangerous place.”
Rubio told reporters U.S. diplomatic staff has been notified on the heightened risk, however he did not say whether evacuations had been ordered or not. Washington’s decision to keep its embassy open mirrors that of a plethora of EU countries that are dismissing the Kremlin’s calls to leave the capital city.
“The EU is not going anywhere,” Katarína Mathernová, the EU ambassador to Ukraine, said on Monday. “We are staying in Kyiv.”
The EU on Tuesday summoned Moscow’s chargé d’affaires to the bloc, Karen Malayan, to demand the Kremlin “stop hitting civilians” and “engage in genuine peace talks starting with a full and unconditional ceasefire.”
Over the weekend, Moscow fired more than 80 missiles at the capital, killing at least two people and injuring and additional 87, according to Ukrainian officials.