The U.S. answers Russia: Embassy in Kiev is open and will not remove diplomatic personnel from Ukraine

The embassy's statement followed comments by EU foreign policy chief Kaya Kallas, who said at a conference Thursday that all embassies were left in Kiev, “except one”.

“All European embassies remained, America left”, Kallas said before a meeting of EU foreign ministers, referring to the recent Russian warnings Monday for further attacks on Kiev and calls for foreign diplomats to leave the city.

The US Embassy later issued a statement on X denying reports that it had evacuated staff.

The US Embassy is open. There are no changes in our operations and other reports are false”, the embassy said.

The embassy added that the State Department regularly reviews security conditions and reiterated instructions advising American citizens not to travel to Ukraine.

Kiev Rejects Claims

The Ukraine Foreign Ministry also said reports of a US evacuation were incorrect.

“Information about the departure of the American Embassy is not true”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhi Tikhyi told reporters.

Presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said the comments may have referred to a temporary shift of some American personnel before a recent attack.

“probably referred to circumstances prior to Sunday night's attack. We heard that American diplomats left Kiev temporarily at the time of”, Lytvyn said.

“Anyway, Ukraine is grateful to all embassies operating in Kiev”, he added.

Russia warns of further attacks

The statements followed Russia's announcement that it would conduct “systematic attacks” against decision-making centres and defence-related objects in Kiev.

Moscow said the attacks, in retaliation for an alleged Ukrainian attack on a dormitory in occupied Starobilsk, would target infrastructure involved in production and use of fears; Kiev denied having targeted the dorm.

Russia also claimed it would target objects involved in the design, production and deployment of fears allegedly used by Ukraine with NATO's “assistance”.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Syhbira dismissed threats such as “quality” and said they would not influence the work of foreign missions in Kiev.

After that, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged the US to evacuate embassy personnel during a call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to Russia's foreign ministry.

Moscow's warning also came after a major wave of attacks last weekend against Kiev with 90 rockets and 600 drones.

The GeoPost