NEW DELHI: The United States along with Italy, Spain and Greece closed its embassies in Ukrainian capital after a potential air attack from Russia.
According to a report in CNN, the Greek embassy remained closed due to “security reasons”. The Spanish Embassy in Kyiv will also be closed today after receiving information about a possible major airstrike on the city.
Meanwhile, the Times of Israel reported that Israel will not shut down its embassy in Kyiv. Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky said, “We are operating as normal currently.”
The warnings of fresh strikes come as Moscow looks to retaliate against Ukraine for firing US-supplied long-range missiles on Russian territory for the first time and with the Kremlin accusing outgoing US President Joe Biden of dragging out the war.
Russia has already ramped up a wave of deadly missile strikes in recent days, targeting residential areas and Ukraine’s energy grid. Air alerts blare out across the country daily.
The warning comes a day after Ukraine used US ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory, taking advantage of newly granted permission from the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden on the war’s 1,000th day.
Russia had been warning the West for months that if Washington allowed Ukraine to fire U.S., British and French missiles deep into Russia, Moscow would consider those NATO members to be directly involved in the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in October that Moscow will respond to Ukraine’s strikes with U.S.-made weapons deep into Russia.
On Tuesday, Putin lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a broader range of conventional attacks, with nuclear risks rising amid the highest tensions between Russia and West in more than half a century.