Western embassies in Ukraine close over threat of major Russian airstrike

Western media reported that the embassies of Spain, Italy and Greece in Kiev suspended their work in the Ukrainian capital due to potential security threats and Moscow carrying out a major Russian air strike.

This comes as the US State Department’s Consular Affairs Division said in a statement that the US Embassy in Kiev had received information about a possible major air attack, Wednesday, and would close its doors.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the embassy will be closed, and embassy staff have been instructed to shelter in place,” the department added in a statement posted on the US embassy’s website in Kyiv.

The statement continued, “The US Embassy advises US citizens to take immediate shelter if air raid sirens sound”.

The warning comes a day after Ukraine used US ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory, exploiting a recent statement from the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden on the 1,000th day of the war.

Russia has warned the West for months that if Washington allows Ukraine to use American, British and French-made weapons to strike deep inside Russia, Moscow will see those NATO members as directly involved in the war in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that Russia would respond if Ukraine struck deep inside Russia with US-made weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday lowered the criteria under which a nuclear strike could be launched in response to wider conventional attacks, heightening nuclear risks at a time when tensions between Russia and the West are at their highest levels in more than half a century.