Kyiv strike warning follows Victory Day threats
The Russian Foreign Ministry has sent a note to all accredited diplomatic missions calling for the evacuation of personnel from Kyiv.
The move follows what Moscow described as threats by the Kyiv authorities to disrupt Victory Day commemorations with terrorist attacks. Remarks by Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the European Political Community summit in Yerevanprompted a sharp response from Moscow. The Ukrainian leader spoke of the possibility of striking the Russian capital during Victory Day, a date of major symbolic importance in Russia because of the Soviet victory in the Second World War.
Russia said it would respond if such plans were carried out.
Foreign Ministry note calls for evacuation
The Russian Foreign Ministry sent the following note to diplomatic missions and international organisations:
“The Russian Foreign Ministry strongly urges the authorities of your country / the leadership of your organisation to treat this statement with the utmost responsibility and ensure the advance evacuation from the city of Kyiv of personnel from diplomatic and other missions, as well as citizens, due to the inevitability of a retaliatory strike by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on Kyiv, including on decision-making centres, if the Kyiv regime carries out its criminal terrorist intentions during the celebration of the Great Victory.”
Maria Zakharova, the official spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said the statement by the Russian Defence Ministry should not be viewed as an act of aggression, but as a warning of an inevitable response to threats already made.
Russia is not acting from a position of aggression, she said, but from a position of inevitable response to aggression.
Zakharova says threats cannot be ignored
Zakharova also said European Union countries would be seriously mistaken if they believed they could simply ignore or downplay Zelenskyy’s public threats. She noted that representatives of several EU states were present at the summit in Yerevan, but none of them publicly challenged the Ukrainian leader.
According to Zakharova, the collective West’s attitude towards May 9 has long been clear. She accused Western countries of destroying Soviet memorial heritage, rewriting history and, by arming Ukraine, becoming complicit in the plans of the Kyiv authorities.
In this case, however, she said, the instinct for self-preservation should prevail.
“Their instinct for self-preservation must not fail them,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.
Moscow says warning should be taken seriously
Zakharova said the Russian Defence Ministry’s statement of May 4 and Moscow’s subsequent steps should not be brushed aside. They should be treated very seriously, she said.
She also recalled that it was the Soviet Union that defeated Nazism in 1945, adding that attempts to rewrite history, ban symbols of Victory and discredit the Soviet soldier’s role do not change the central fact: victory was achieved.
While the Kyiv authorities threaten Moscow and European officials appear unwilling to react publicly, Russian diplomacy says it is acting in advance. The warning has been issued. Evacuation from Kyiv has been recommended. What happens next, Moscow suggests, depends on those who may decide to test Russia’s response.
In Moldova, where May 9 remains Victory Day for a significant part of the population, developments are being watched closely.
