US, Greek and Italy shut Kyiv embassies citing strike threat

The United States shut its embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday morning due to what it called the threat of a significant air attack, a day after Ukraine used American missiles to hit a target inside Russia in what Moscow described as an escalation in the war.

The Italian and Greek embassies said they too had closed their doors. The French embassy remained open but urged its citizens to be cautious.

Meanwhile, Ukraine fired a volley of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia, the latest new Western weapon it has been permitted to use on Russian targets a day after it fired US ATACMS missiles. The strikes were widely reported by Russian war correspondents on Telegram and confirmed by an official on condition of anonymity. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s general staff said he had no such information at present.

Later, after an air raid siren in the early afternoon jangled nerves in the capital, Ukraine’s military spy agency said Russia was trying to sow panic by circulating fake online messages about a massive looming missile and drone attack.

“The enemy, unable to subdue Ukrainians by force, resorts to measures of intimidation and psychological pressure on society. We ask you to be vigilant and steadfast,” it said. A US government source said the embassy closure was “related to ongoing threats of air attacks.”

Ukraine on Tuesday used US ATACMS missiles to attack an arms depot inside Russia, making use of newly granted permission from the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden on the 1,000th day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has been signalling to the United States and its allies for weeks that if they give permission to Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with Western-supplied missiles then Moscow will consider it a major escalation.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the embassy will be closed, and embassy employees are being instructed to shelter in place,” the US Department of State Consular Affairs said in a statement on the embassy’s website. “The US Embassy recommends US citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced.” The Kremlin said it had no comment.

Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said in an interview published on Wednesday that Moscow would retaliate against Nato countries that facilitate long-range Ukrainian missile strikes against Russian territory.

In the early afternoon, the Ukrainian air force told people to seek shelter because of a missile threat. Senior officials told people not to ignore the alert. That came shortly before Kyiv’s top military spy agency GUR issued a warning about a Russian psychological operation it said involved fake messages claiming to have been sent by the agency.

Reuters