The US embassy in Kyiv was shut down on Wednesday morning after receiving information of a potential significant air attack, US officials said.
"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 published on the website of the US embassy in Kyiv.
"The US embassy recommends US citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced," the statement said.
The warning comes a day after Ukraine used long-range missiles to strike Russian territory, taking advantage of newly granted permission from the outgoing administration of president Joe Biden on the war’s 1,000th day.
American citizens in Ukraine have been asked to monitor local media for updates, identify shelter locations in advance for tracking air alerts, immediately go to a nearby shelter if an air alert is announced, and follow directions given by Ukrainian officials and first responders in the event of an emergency.
Ukraine: The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv received specific information of a potential significant air attack on Nov 20. The Embassy will be closed and recommends U.S. citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced. https://t.co/ah0bpDfULK pic.twitter.com/m8cWXCXT2V
— Travel - State Dept (@TravelGov) November 20, 2024
The assistance contact number has also been shared by the embassy in its statement.
The UK government, which is considering its own position on whether to give Kyiv permission to use British-supplied weapons against targets inside Russian president Vladimir Putin’s country, said it was looking closely at the security situation for its own embassy.
The UK’s science secretary Peter Kyle said the government was looking closely at the situation and “we will do everything we can to keep British citizens safe”.
Russia has warned the West for months that it will consider Nato members to be directly involved in the war in Ukraine if Washington allowed Ukraine to fire US, British and French missiles deep into Russia.
The specific information of a potential significant air attack on Wednesday comes within a month of Mr Putin saying that Moscow will respond to Ukraine’s strikes with US-made weapons deep into Russia.
He lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike as a response to a broader range of conventional attacks, raising the tensions surrounding nuclear risk threats. Mr Putin has not explained the involvement of North Korea in the continuing full-scale war, including military help of more than 10,000 troops and conventional weapons Pyongyang has provided to Moscow.
Ukraine’s allies in the West condemned the move by Mr Putin, terming it a rhetoric. “We are not intimidated,” said French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Wednesday, dismissing the lowered threshold as just “rhetoric”.
Downing Street condemned the change as the “latest example of irresponsibility” from the “depraved Russian government”.
Under Russia’s revised nuclear doctrine now, a conventional attack on Russia by any nation supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country. The doctrine, which lays the conditions under which Russia’s leadership might consider a nuclear strike, also states that an attack using conventional missiles, drones or other kinds of aircraft could justify the response.
Russia has been planning to update its nuclear doctrine for months, but the timing of Mr Putin’s signature on the changes signals a significant escalation in the war, coming in the wake of Mr Biden’s decision to allow Kyiv to conduct strikes inside Russia with the 190-mile range ATACMS.
