Russia said on Monday (25) that it intended to launch “systematic attacks” against targets in Kiev linked to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as decision-making centers, and asked foreigners to leave the city, a day after one of its most intense bombings of the city since the start of the war.
But Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called on Kiev’s allies not to give in to “Russian blackmail”. The head of the EU mission in the city said the 27-nation bloc was “not going anywhere”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a statement on the ministry’s website, that the imminent attacks were “in response to the Kiev regime’s continued terrorist attacks” against civilians in Russia.
The statement further said that the Russian Armed Forces “are initiating systematic attacks against facilities located in Kiev that are used for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as on centers where corresponding decisions are being made.”
An earlier statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry called on foreigners in Kiev, including diplomats, to leave the city as soon as possible.
Russia cited what it describes as a deliberate drone attack last Friday on a student dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine.
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The Ukrainian military denied Russia’s accusations and said it had attacked an elite drone commando unit in the area.
In Kiev, rescue teams dealt with the aftermath of Sunday’s attacks, which authorities said killed two people and injured 91.
Moscow fired an Oreshnik hypersonic missile near Kiev — the third use of the nuclear-capable weapon in more than four years of war.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha wrote on social media platform X: “We are currently discussing with our partners that there is no need to give in to this Russian blackmail.”
The head of the EU mission in Kiev, Katarina Mathernova, said the Russian warning sought to sow panic.
“Russia wants fear. Panic. Isolation of Ukraine. This will not work,” she said on social media. “The EU isn’t going anywhere. We’re going to stay in Kiev. We’re going to stay with Ukraine.”
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said around 300 sites in Kiev were damaged in the weekend’s attacks, including a newly opened museum dedicated to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
“To date, there is not a single room in the National Chernobyl Museum that has not been destroyed,” said museum director Vitalina Martynovska.
More than 70 foreign diplomats paid tribute to the victims of the Kiev attacks by visiting the hard-hit Lukyanivka neighborhood on Monday.
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Attacks in Russia and Ukraine
Meanwhile, Ukraine continued its attacks on Russia’s infrastructure and industrial assets.
In the Belgorod region of Russia, one man was killed and another was injured in a missile and drone attack that also cut power and water supplies, local authorities reported on Telegram.
Four people were killed in the Russian-controlled town of Horlivka in eastern Ukraine, its mayor, Ivan Prikhodko, said on Telegram, blaming an attack from Ukraine.
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In Ukrainian-controlled territory, two people were killed and 16 injured in Russian strikes in the past 24 hours in the southern Kherson region, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.
In a missile attack on Monday in the city of Derhachi, near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, two people were killed and more than 20 were injured, authorities said.
Another 14 people were injured in the southeast region of Dnipropetrovsk, authorities said. Emergency services reported that drones attacked a nine-story apartment building in the city of Pavlohrad.
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The governor of the eastern Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin, said 12 people were injured in Kramatorsk, a front-line town.
A Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports. Russia and Ukraine have denied deliberately targeting civilians since Russia invaded the neighboring country in February 2022.
United States mediation failed to broker an end to the war. Each side accuses the other of trying to escalate the conflict, and Ukraine plans to send reinforcements to its northern regions to counter what it believes are Russia’s plans for a new offensive.
