U.S. says diplomats remain in Kyiv as Russia escalates threats

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said its operations had not changed on Thursday, pushing back against a suggestion from the European Union’s top diplomat that Washington had pulled diplomats out of the Ukrainian capital. The embassy said reports of an evacuation or drawdown were false, while State Department officials said there were no changes to the U.S. presence in Kyiv and that the security posture of Embassy Kyiv is reviewed regularly.

The clarification came after Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, briefly suggested the United States had left Kyiv, before the European Commission said her remarks were a misunderstanding and the transcript was corrected. The episode played out as Russia’s Foreign Ministry urged foreign citizens and diplomats to leave Kyiv ahead of what Moscow called “systematic” strikes. Several European governments and the EU rejected that warning, with France, Germany, Britain and Japan saying their embassies remained open as planned.

In Brussels, the EU summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires after the threats against foreign diplomats in Kyiv. At the United Nations on May 26, nearly 50 countries issued a joint statement condemning Russia’s threats against embassies in Kyiv. The United States did not join that statement, even as it publicly insisted that its own diplomats remained in place.

The diplomatic clash landed as Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a rare direct appeal to Donald Trump and Congress for more air defenses. In a letter seen by Reuters, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready to buy more Patriot systems and interceptor missiles, and warned that deliveries through NATO’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, financed by European allies, were no longer keeping up with the scale of the attacks. Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s only means to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles was U.S.-made Patriot interceptors, and he said the pressure was growing as the Iran war threatened to divert U.S. stockpiles. In his nightly address, he said it was rare for a foreign leader to write simultaneously to the president and Congress, but the moment required “swift and effective action.”

The battlefield pressure is already visible in the numbers. Ukrainian officials said a major Russian strike on Kyiv killed at least two people and injured more than 80 others, while a separate weekend attack injured 87 people and damaged civilian buildings in nearly every district. Albania said its ambassador’s residence in Kyiv was damaged. Ukraine said Sunday’s attack included 30 ballistic missiles, with 11 shot down, and that Russia also fired two nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

Moscow said its threats were retaliation for a Ukrainian strike in occupied Luhansk Oblast, which Ukraine said hit a Russian drone command facility. For Washington, the core question is whether reassuring words about Kyiv are being matched by enough air defenses to blunt Russia’s escalating missile campaign.