• UN chief ‘deeply concerned’ by Moscow plan for strikes
• EU says Kremlin bore ultimate responsibility for incidents

MOSCOW: Russia’s call for diplomats and foreigners to leave Kyiv over the threat of fresh strikes drew a sharp backlash from Western countries on Tuesday, some of whom accused Moscow of escalating the more than four-year war.

Russia announced on Monday it had started a campaign of “systematic” strikes on Kyiv, after battering Ukraine with hundreds of drones and a hypersonic missile over the weekend.

It said the strikes would target the Ukrainian capital’s “decision-making centres” and urged foreign citizens and diplomats “to leave the city as soon as possible”, as well as for Kyiv residents to avoid public buildings.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday he was “deeply concerned” by Russia’s announcement that it plans to launch strikes against Ukrainian defense enterprises and decision-making centers in Kyiv.

Guterres made the remarks to the United Nations Security Council after Moscow said that it intended to mount such strikes, one day after one of its heaviest bombardments of the city since the Russia-Ukraine war began.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said that Russia bore ultimate responsibility for the incidents.

“People in the Baltic countries have been experiencing what many believed belonged to another era,” von der Leyen said, standing alongside the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

“Air raid alerts, families sheltering, schools closing, transport interrupted. This is the reality on Europe’s eastern border in 2026,” she said.

Ukraine called the threats “blackmail” and encouraged its allies to ignore the warning, while several Western diplomatic missions announced they had no plans to evacuate their staff.

Almost 50 countries condemned what they said were threats by Russia against embassies in Ukraine in a joint statement at the United Nations on Tuesday.

“We also condemn recent threats by Russia to diplomatic institutions and embassies in Kyiv. This is something which we cannot accept,” the joint statement delivered by Ukrainian UN representative Andriy Melnyk said. The statement was signed by European countries, Japan, South Korea and others.

No plans to move staff

The European Union also lashed out at Russia’s threat, saying it had no plans to move its staff, while Germany and Norway summoned Russia’s ambassador over the move.

A spokesperson for France’s foreign ministry said that evacuating diplomatic staff from Kyiv was “out of the question.” Russia’s threat came after weeks of escalating strikes between the two sides, and as US-led talks aimed at ending the conflict remained largely frozen over the Iran war.

Russia last week accused Ukraine of hitting a vocational school in the Russian-occupied Lugansk region, killing 21 people, while a massive attack on Ukraine’s capital the week before killed 24, according to Ukrainian authorities. Both sides deny targeting civilians.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2026