Moscow Tells Foreign Diplomats to Leave Kyiv
Russia said on Saturday that its forces will keep carrying out strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, and the Russian Foreign Ministry urged foreign nationals and diplomats to leave the Ukrainian capital. The warning came on the same day a Russian air attack hit a bridge across the Dnipro river, the latest blow in an escalating campaign against the city’s infrastructure.
In a statement, the ministry described the strikes as a response to what it called Ukrainian “terrorist acts” against Russia’s civilian population and civilian infrastructure. It said Russian forces are “systematically” carrying out targeted strikes on military facilities in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
The ministry also directed a warning at foreign missions. It once again cautioned foreign nationals, including diplomatic staff, against staying in Ukraine or traveling to its territory. “Responsibility for any adverse consequences lies entirely with those who ignore this warning,” the ministry said.
A Repeated Warning
The statement was not the first of its kind. The ministry said it had previously urged foreign nationals and diplomats in Kyiv to leave the city and refrain from visiting Ukraine. “We note with concern that not everyone has heeded these warnings,” it said, adding that individuals are “knowingly exposing themselves to mortal danger.”
It also pledged that Russia’s armed forces will continue to deliver “massive retaliatory strikes.” The Kremlin has long said it targets only military facilities, a claim Kyiv rejects. Both sides deny targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.
Bridges Across the Dnipro Under Fire
The bridge strike on Saturday followed a run of attacks on Kyiv’s river crossings. The Southern Bridge, one of eight spans connecting the capital’s east and west banks, was hit several times beginning Thursday and was closed to traffic in both directions. Authorities also restricted movement on other crossings, and the Paton Bridge was closed in both directions, according to city officials. The Metro Bridge was closed toward the right bank.
The strikes came from fast-moving, jet-powered drones. They produced severe congestion across a city of about 3 million people, whose daily life has been upended as winter approaches. The Russian Ministry of Defence said on Telegram that its drones hit a bridge over the Dnipro in Kyiv, a power station in the surrounding region, the port of Izmail near Odesa and a cargo vessel.
Attacks on Friday also reached the Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Poltava and Rivne regions, with at least four people reported wounded.
Kyiv’s Mayor: “The Enemy Is Tearing Kyiv Apart”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that the capital is in “a very dramatic situation” and that “the enemy is tearing Kyiv apart.” He said the city should now be on a war footing, adding that it is no longer possible to pretend life can continue as it did in peacetime. His remarks followed a crisis meeting of the city’s defense council.
Moscow’s Stated Rationale
Moscow has framed the campaign as payback. On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine “will have to pay a price” for actions in recent months, and that Russian forces would continue to strike targets they consider appropriate. Reuters reported that he was answering a question about how Ukrainian strikes had affected Moscow’s position on peace talks.
Days earlier, on Friday, September 25, Putin said Moscow had been ready to resume negotiations with Kyiv after Russia’s September parliamentary election. He complained about a major Ukrainian attack on Moscow during the vote, about what he said was Ukraine’s targeting of polling stations, and about a Ukrainian drone attack on St. Petersburg during an economic forum in June. He said all proposals to settle the conflict remained on the table, but that Moscow needed to weigh its own interests.
Speaking after his Valdai forum address on Thursday, Putin said the strikes on Ukrainian economic targets were a direct response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries and on ships in the Black Sea. “They started it,” he said. He acknowledged that Kyiv had achieved some results with its refinery strikes, saying Russia had lost about 1% of its GDP. Ukraine says it targets Russian oil infrastructure because the revenue helps finance the war.
Zelensky: “No Rules Now”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Putin of discarding the rules of armed conflict. In a post on X, Zelensky said Putin had declared last month that there were “no rules now,” citing unnamed intelligence and people around the Russian leader. “The Russians couldn’t occupy us. So now they are doing massive attacks and massive killings,” Zelensky said. The Kremlin has rejected the accusation.
Zelensky has also called on allies to tighten sanctions to keep Moscow from obtaining components for its weapons. On the Ukrainian side, the military said it struck an oil refinery in Volgograd and another facility in Samara, both in southwestern Russia, saying they supplied fuel to Russian forces. Both countries have also stepped up attacks on each other’s grain vessels in the Black Sea in recent months, and Ukrainian drones continue to kill civilians in Russian border regions.
Kyiv Ahead of Winter
The war, now in its fifth year after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, has largely centered on ground fighting in the east, and Kyiv was long spared the devastation seen near the front. In recent months the capital has been under near-constant air alert. Repeated strikes on trains and petrol stations have hit the rail and road networks, while attacks on energy facilities threaten power and heating.
The warning to diplomats comes against the memory of last winter, when Zelensky declared a state of emergency in the energy sector. At one point more than half of Kyiv’s homes were without power, and roughly half a million residents left the capital. Germany called the Russian strikes on energy infrastructure war crimes. The Kremlin has said it targets only military facilities and has blamed the war’s continuation on Kyiv’s refusal to accept its peace demands.