Russia has warned foreign nationals and diplomatic personnel that remaining in Kyiv poses a “mortal danger”, as Moscow intensifies its aerial campaign against Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky claims Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to abandon previous restrictions on air attacks.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the warning on Saturday, cautioning foreign citizens, including accredited representatives of diplomatic missions, against staying in Kyiv or travelling to Ukraine.
The statement comes amid mounting concern among Western governments over the security of their diplomatic personnel in the Ukrainian capital, where Russian missile and drone strikes are increasingly targeting infrastructure essential to civilian life.
Moscow’s warning followed reports that senior Western diplomats had prepared contingency plans to evacuate personnel from Kyiv to Lviv or across the border into eastern Poland if Russia began deliberately targeting foreign diplomatic representations.
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The Guardian reported that diplomats had drawn up contingency blueprints while publicly maintaining an uninterrupted presence in the capital to avoid handing Moscow a symbolic victory.
Private assessments, however, reportedly warned that Kyiv’s security environment was deteriorating rapidly as winter approaches.
Ukraine has rejected suggestions that foreign missions are preparing to withdraw.
Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said established diplomatic protocols required missions to formally notify the Ukrainian government before relocating. He said no such notifications or appeals had been received.
Western diplomatic missions have continued operating in Kyiv since returning in mid-2022 following Russia’s failed attempt to seize the capital. The US embassy remains open and operational, although Washington continues to maintain its Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for Ukraine because of the ongoing war.
The Kremlin’s warning comes as Zelensky claims Russia has significantly widened the scope of its aerial offensive.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the Ukrainian president said Ukrainian intelligence had intercepted conversations involving Kremlin officials indicating that Putin had ordered Russian forces to abandon restrictions that had previously governed their air attacks.
“He (Putin) said there are no rules now,” Zelensky said.
According to Zelensky, the alleged order was issued as Russia intensified attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, with schools, hospitals and data centres among the sites hit.
The Ukrainian president cited a Russian attack on a school in Kyiv on October 1 as evidence of what he described as an expanding campaign against civilian targets.
The escalation is already placing mounting pressure on Kyiv’s basic infrastructure.
Vitali Klitschko, the capital’s mayor, warned on Friday that maintaining essential municipal services under relentless missile and drone attacks had become a matter of “safety and survival” for the city’s roughly three million residents.
Russian attacks have repeatedly struck transport infrastructure, including bridges across the Dnipro River.
Vehicular traffic on the South Bridge was suspended after loitering-munition strikes damaged the roadway and protective barriers around the Green Line metro crossing. On Saturday, a Russian jet-powered drone struck the North Bridge, damaging the road surface and severing overhead trolleybus cables.
For western governments, the dilemma is becoming increasingly acute: maintaining diplomatic operations demonstrates continued support for Ukraine, but the growing intensity of Russian attacks is raising the risks to personnel.
For Kyiv, the stakes are broader still. If Moscow is indeed moving towards an air campaign with “no rules”, the ability to keep transport, energy and essential services operating through the winter could become a strategic test in its own right.
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