{"id":211830,"date":"2026-05-27T08:32:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T08:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/russia-pressures-u-s-ukraines-allies-to-flee-kyiv-threatening-systematic-strikes-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T08:32:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T08:32:54","slug":"russia-pressures-u-s-ukraines-allies-to-flee-kyiv-threatening-systematic-strikes-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/russia-pressures-u-s-ukraines-allies-to-flee-kyiv-threatening-systematic-strikes-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia pressures U.S., Ukraine\u2019s allies to flee Kyiv, threatening \u2018systematic strikes\u2019 – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Abandon the Ukrainian capital <\/a>or risk being hit in a new and intense wave of attacks.
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That is the warning Russia has issued the United States and other countries with diplomats in Kyiv, urging them to flee or face what it called \u201csystematic strikes\u201d on the Ukrainian capital.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he received a personal warning to that effect from his Russian counterpart and offered Washington\u2019s renewed mediation in stalled talks to end the war.
European countries rejected the Kremlin\u2019s call to leave Kyiv, vowing to stay put and framing the threat as a \u201csign of desperation.\u201d Some summoned Russian ambassadors in protest.
But this threatened escalation follows a weekend bombardment that was perhaps the heaviest faced by the city since the start of the four-year war \u2014 including the use of the Oreshnik hypersonic missile.
The new warning left many residents on edge.
Lesia Homiak\u2019s apartment shook when a missile hit within some 20 yards of her building in the city\u2019s historic Podil district overnight Sunday. Homiak, 31, said she ran into the basement with her partner, Andriy Klen, to seek shelter.
\u201cI have never felt anything like that in my life,\u201d Homiak told NBC News on the phone from Kyiv.
\u201cWe came back and saw total carnage,\u201d said Homiak, who works as an account manager at an IT company. Her apartment is now in need of major renovation, she said, with cracks in the walls, windows blown out and glass everywhere. \u201cWe are lucky to be alive.\u201d
Moscow says more attacks like it could be coming.
Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry warned Monday that it would conduct \u201csystematic strikes\u201d against military targets in Kyiv, including what it called \u201cdecision-making centers.\u201d
It said this would be in retaliation for a drone attack last week that authorities said killed 21 people, including students, at a college in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv\u2019s armed forces have denied the accusation, saying they were aiming at a military unit near the town. Ukraine has been striking deeper inside Russia in recent months, creating increasingly uncomfortable optics for the Kremlin.
Ukrainian cities, meanwhile, face near-daily attacks from Russian missiles and drones, causing extensive damage and thousands of civilian casualties.
But the Russian Foreign Ministry said things would now get more intense for the Ukrainian capital, adding that the deadly attack on the college in Luhansk has \u201cexhausted our patience.\u201d
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday refused to provide details on the frequency of potential strikes.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov raised the new threat in a call with Rubio on Monday, according to the Russian readout, informing the U.S. on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin of the impending \u201csystematic and sequential strikes\u201d on Kyiv and reiterating the call for U.S. diplomatic staff to evacuate.
U.S.-led peace talks to end the war have stalled, with President Donald Trump focused on the Iran war.
Asked about the call on Tuesday, Rubio said he was aware of the notice to all embassies, but that Lavrov was warning him personally that \u201cKyiv\u2019s going to be a very dangerous place\u201d and wanted Rubio to relay the message directly to Trump. There are no \u201cscheduled negotiations\u201d on Ukraine at the moment, Rubio added, but \u201cthe U.S. is always prepared to play a constructive and helpful role if that opportunity presents itself.\u201d
Some U.S. allies responded less evenhandedly.
\u201cWe are not going anywhere!\u201d the head of the E.U. mission in Kyiv, Katarina Mathernova, wrote in a statement on Facebook<\/a>, calling the warning from Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry \u201ca masterpiece of hypocrisy\u201d and an attempt to sow panic.
Such threats are not a sign of strength, she added. \u201cThey are a sign of desperation.\u201d
France and Poland were also among Ukraine\u2019s allies that condemned the threat and rejected the warning to flee.
A State Department spokesperson told NBC News there were no changes to U.S. embassy operations in Kyiv.
It\u2019s not the first such threat issued by Russia against the Ukrainian capital. A similar warning was issued earlier this month in case Ukraine attacked the Victory Day military parade in Red Square.
For Homiak and her partner in Kyiv, the new threat and intense weekend bombardment left them fearful but also resigned to the reality of a more dangerous life under fire.
Klen, her partner, said the couple were not planning to leave the capital but would make sure to seek shelter inside the subway from now on. \u201cThis experience has helped to understand that,\u201d Klen, 38, said.
For Russia\u2019s influential military bloggers, who have been disgruntled in recent months over domestic issues and a lack of battlefield progress, the threat of intensified attacks on Kyiv was welcome but overdue.
\u201cIn theory, a month should be enough to make Kyiv uninhabitable,\u201d wrote one prominent figure known as Fighterbomber on Telegram. \u201cThat sounds great, but now we need to put our words into action.\u201d
Anastasiia Parafeniuk reported from Kyiv and Yuliya Talmazan from London.<\/em>
Yuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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