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US embassy in Kyiv was closed yesterday was ‘related to ongoing threats of air attacks’
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The US embassy in Kyiv will resume normal operations today after it was shut down yesterday due to threat of a significant air attack.
This follows Ukraine firing American longer-range ATACMS missiles to strike inside Russia after US president Joe Biden removed restrictions after months of pressure from Kyiv.
A US government source said the embassy closure yesterday was “related to ongoing threats of air attacks”. The Italian and Greek embassies said they too had closed their doors, while the French embassy remained open but urged its citizens to be cautious.
This comes as Ukraine has fired British long-range Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for the first time, The Independent understands, as momentum builds in the West’s military support for Kyiv’s war effort.
The British-made missile – which Kyiv has been lobbying to use beyond Russia’s borders for months – was fired at Russia on Wednesday, with images published by Russian military bloggers purporting to show Storm Shadow fragments in Russia’s Kursk region, beyond Ukraine’s northeastern border.
The US also announced yesterday it would allow Ukrainian military to use anti-personnel landmines, as it seeks to slow down Russian advances.
North Korea sent more artillery systems to Russia in a recent shipment of conventional arms, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Wednesday.
Pyongyang exported 170mm self-propelled guns and 240mm multiple rocket launch systems to aid the Russian war effort in Ukraine, the National Intelligence Service said in a briefing, according to lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun who was in attendance.
According to a Ukrainian intelligence assessment from Saturday, Russia received around 50 self-propelled howitzers and 20 multiple launch rocket systems from North Korea.
South Korean spy agency says Pyongyang exported 170mm self-propelled guns and 240mm multiple rocket launch systems
The damage of two undersea internet cables in the Baltic sea must be seen as an act of sabotage, German defence minister Boris Pistorius has said.
A pair of fibre-optic communications cables were severed on Sunday and Monday, in an incident which “immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage”, Finland and Germany said in a joint statement.
A 745-mile (1,200 kilometre) cable linking Helsinki to the German port of Rostock stopped working at 2am on Monday, according to Finnish state-controlled cyber security and telecoms company Cinia.
Another cable linking Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland Island went out of service at 8am on Monday, according to a Lithuanian communications firm.
My colleague Alex Croft has the full report:
Two cables were cut, which connect Germany to Finland and Lithuania to Sweden
The US decision to provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines expands the use of a weapon that the international community has long condemned because of its danger to innocent civilians. And it reflects another in a long line of American policy shifts on the controversial issue in the past 30 years.
US officials say the mines are needed to help Ukraine stall Russian progress on the battlefield, where Moscow’s forces are moving in smaller ground units on the frontlines rather than in more heavily protected armored vehicles.
The defence department has been providing Ukraine with anti-tank mines throughout the war. Defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the new policy will give Ukraine “nonpersistent antipersonnel land mines” that are safer because they lose the ability to detonate over time.
The US decision to provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines expands the use of a weapon that the international community has long condemned because of its danger to innocent civilians
Air raid alarms continued to blare in Ukraine yesterday in the war-hit country, sending people into shelter zones. The fears grew after the US embassy in Kyiv warned of a “potential significant air attack” and shuttered its doors yesterday, following Russia’s vow to respond after Ukraine fired longer-range US missiles at its territory for the first time.
Asked about Joe Biden’s decision on using US long-range missiles, a Ukrainian colonel – with close links to the army’s top brass – told The Independent: “Hopefully we will be able to upset Russia’s plans by inflicting a lot of damage on troop concentrations and arms depots.”
He added: “It’s better late than never and a positive development.
“But a key issue is how many ATACMS will the US provide? The US can [also] programme the range the missiles can fly – so another important step is what distance they will allow the missiles to strike.”
Askold Krushelnycky has more details:
Askold Krushelnycky speaks to a colonel who says Kyiv’s forces need to inflict as much pain on Vladimir Putin’s army as quickly as they can
The US embassy in Kyiv will resume normal operations today after it had shut for the day yesterday due to threat of a significant air attack. A day earlier, the US had given nod to Kyiv to fire US’s ATACMS missiles to strike inside Russia.
Russia had described the strike by US missiles on an ammunition depot in Bryansk as an escalation in the 1,000-day-old war, while Ukraine‘s military spy agency said Russia was trying to sow panic by circulating fake online messages about a looming missile and drone attack.
“@USEmbassyKyiv has resumed services following a temporary shelter-in-place suspension earlier today,” US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink wrote on X.
“We continue to encourage US citizens to remain vigilant, monitor official Ukrainian sources for updates, and be prepared to shelter in place if an air alert is announced.”
The US State Department had earlier said it expected the Kyiv embassy to resume normal operations today.
The initial State Department statement on the embassy’s website said the embassy would be closed “out of an abundance of caution”. Embassy employees, it said, were being instructed to “shelter in place”.
“The US Embassy recommends US citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced.”
The Kremlin said it had no comment.
A US government source said the embassy closure was “related to ongoing threats of air attacks”. The Italian and Greek embassies said they too had closed their doors. The French embassy remained open but urged its citizens to be cautious.
Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the Crimea peninsula, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, would have to be restored to Ukrainian sovereignty through diplomacy.
Mr Zelensky, interviewed by Fox News on a train in Ukraine and broadcast yesterday, said his country could not afford to lose the number of lives that would be required to retake Crimea through military means.
He again rejected any notion of ceding any territory already occupied by Moscow’s forces, saying Ukraine “cannot legally acknowledge any occupied territory of Ukraine as Russian.”
“I was already mentioning that we are ready to bring Crimea back diplomatically,” Mr Zelensky told Fox News through an interpreter.
“We cannot spend dozens of thousands of our people so that they perish for the sake of Crimea coming backa… and still it’s not a fact that we can bring it back with the arms in our hands. We understand that Crimea can be brought back diplomatically.”
Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister issued a chilling warning after Ukraine launched US-made missiles over the border on Tuesday, my colleague Holly Patrick reports.
On the sidelines of the G20 summit, Sergei Lavrov said: “If long-range missiles are going to be applied from Ukraine into Russian territory, it will also mean that they are operated by American military experts and we will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia and will react accordingly.”
The UK government’s decision to axe two former Royal Navy flagships, a frigate and 14 Chinook helicopters shows “just how tight resources must be” in the Ministry of Defence, an analyst has said.
Matthew Savill, military sciences director at RUSI, the world’s oldest defence think-tank, said: “These are mostly capabilities that are approaching retirement anyway, have been at low levels of readiness or aren’t worth further refits or investment.
“But the fact that Defence either can’t crew them, or is prepared to cut them to make very modest savings over five years in the current international environment is an indication of just how tight resources must be in the MOD right now.
“In particular, the Defence Review will be under pressure to set out the future role of the Royal Marines; how the Navy will bring into service and sustain more escorts, which are the workhorses of the fleet; and the impact upon helicopter capacity and procurement.”
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