Russia warns diplomats to leave Kyiv as it launches massive retaliatory strike
This warning follows yesterday's attack by Russia, which saw the use of roughly 600 drones, almost 100 missiles, and a hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile
Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a stark warning to foreign citizens, including diplomatic personnel, to leave Kyiv immediately. This comes as the Russian Armed Forces launch what it describes as a systematic series of strikes against Ukrainian military-industrial facilities as well as decision-making centers and command posts in the Ukrainian capital.
According to a statement by Russia's MoFA, these strikes will be in retaliation for a Ukrainian drone attack on a student dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region.
The ministry blamed Ukraine for the strike on the Luhansk State Pedagogical University in Starobilsk on the night of May 22, which it said killed 21 people, many of them young women. "The bloody attack carried out by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the academic building and dormitory... became yet another blatant demonstration of the Nazi and terrorist nature of the Kyiv regime," the ministry said.
In what it called a retaliation against those attacks, Russia subsequently launched one of its largest aerial assaults on Kyiv, striking the capital with around 600 drones and 90 missiles overnight into Sunday. At least four people were killed and approximately 100 injured. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said damage was recorded in every district of the city. Sites struck included a water supply facility, a market, residential towers, several schools, Ukraine's National Art Museum, and the foreign ministry building, which sustained damage for the first time since the Second World War.
During those attacks, Russia also deployed its Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile against Bila Tserkva, south of Kyiv, marking the third wartime use of the weapon. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described a "heavy attack" and said not all ballistic missiles were intercepted. "They are genuinely deranged," he wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine's military denied striking the dormitory, saying its forces had targeted an elite drone command unit in the area. At a UN Security Council emergency meeting called by Russia, Ukraine's ambassador rejected accusations of war crimes, calling them a "pure propaganda show."
European leaders condemned the assault. French President Emmanuel Macron said the use of the Oreshnik signaled "the dead end of Russia's war of aggression," while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called it a "reckless escalation." EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas described the strikes as "abhorrent acts of terror meant to kill as many civilians as possible."