{"id":942562,"date":"2026-05-06T23:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T23:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/942562\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T23:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T23:22:14","slug":"russia-warns-foreign-diplomats-to-leave-kyiv-in-case-of-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/942562\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia warns foreign diplomats to leave Kyiv in case of strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia<\/a> sent an evacuation warning to foreign diplomats in Kyiv<\/a> on Wednesday, saying it would attack the city if Ukraine<\/a> disrupted World War II<\/a> commemorations in Moscow<\/a> this weekend. Russia did not elaborate on its threat, and Ukraine did not immediately respond.<\/p>\n

Russia marks World War II Victory Day each year on May 9 with a massive military parade<\/a> through Red Square.<\/p>\n

The country earlier this week declared a unilateral ceasefire<\/a> with Ukraine between May 8 and 9 to coincide with the commemorations.<\/p>\n

In a note to foreign diplomatic missions and international organisations, Russia warned it would launch a “retaliatory strike” on the Ukrainian capital, “including against decision-making centres”, if Ukraine disrupted the commemorations this Saturday.<\/p>\n

It urged them to “ensure the timely evacuation of personnel from diplomatic and other missions, as well as citizens, from the city of Kyiv”. There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> has criticised Russia for demanding a ceasefire on May 9, an important holiday for Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zelensky suggested on Monday that Moscow was afraid Ukrainian drones<\/a> would “buzz over Red Square”. Ukraine proposed its own ceasefire for May 6, which Russia ignored.<\/p>\n

“Today, virtually all day long, virtually every hour, we have been receiving reports of strikes from various regions,” the Ukrainian leader said.<\/p>\n

In his evening address, Zelensky said Ukraine would “respond in kind” to Russia’s violations and decide its next steps accordingly.<\/p>\n

Frontline fighting <\/p>\n

Ukrainian officials reported multiple attacks throughout Wednesday, when Ukraine’s unilateral ceasefire was due to be in force.<\/p>\n

At least four people died in Russian attacks, including two at a kindergarten in the northern Sumy region, according to officials. Fighting also continued on the front line.<\/p>\n

A Ukrainian officer at the eastern front, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP: “The enemy continued to carry out infantry raids and attempts to storm our positions.”<\/p>\n

Since Russia “did not comply” with the Kyiv-suggested ceasefire, “our unit responded in kind and countered all provocations”, he added. Another frontline commander said: “The intensity of combat operations remains at the same level.” His unit, he said, was also responding: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!”.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin did not comment on the Kyiv-proposed ceasefire, only calling for Ukraine to halt attacks for May 9.<\/p>\n

Moscow’s defence ministry said it had downed 53 Ukrainian drones between 21:00 and 07:00 (1800-0400 GMT) — far fewer than in previous days.<\/p>\n

It did not say whether any of the drones had attacked after Kyiv’s unilateral truce was supposed to come into effect at midnight.<\/p>\n

Attacks deep in Russia <\/p>\n

Both sides have stepped up strikes in recent weeks<\/a>, and the more than four-year war has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians.<\/p>\n

Kyiv on Tuesday hit deep inside Russia, killing two people in Cheboksary, a city on the Volga, hundreds of miles from Ukraine. The attacks have created a sense of unease in Russia ahead of the May 9 parade.<\/p>\n

Moscow has said it will remove military hardware from the procession for the first time in almost 20 years. It has also started intermittent city-wide internet shutdowns lasting until Saturday.<\/p>\n

Talks on ending what has spiralled into Europe’s worst conflict since World War II have shown little progress and have been sidelines by the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n

Moscow is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from four regions it claims as its own — terms seen as unacceptable to Kyiv.<\/p>\n

FRANCE 24 with AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia sent an evacuation warning to foreign diplomats in Kyiv on Wednesday, saying it would attack the city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[9739,2595,2000,299,332,657,333,658],"class_list":{"0":"post-942562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-ceasefire","9":"tag-drones","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-russia","13":"tag-ukraine","14":"tag-vladimir-putin","15":"tag-volodymyr-zelensky"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116530207107361844","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}