Russia says it will launch major strikes on the Ukrainian capital city in response to civilians being killed by Ukrainian drones
by Dave DeCamp | May 28, 2026
The US said on Thursday that its embassy in Kyiv remains open despite claims to the contrary and Russia’s threats to launch a major attack on the Ukrainian capital city targeting military targets and “decision-making centers.”
Earlier this week, Russia issued a warning to the US and its European allies to evacuate their personnel from Kyiv as Moscow prepares major strikes it says are a response to Ukrainian drone attacks killing civilians in Russia and Russian-controlled territories, calling a Ukrainian drone attack that hit a college in Luhansk and killed 21 civilians the “last straw.
Featured Image: A view shows the US embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, November 20, 2024. REUTERS/Sergiy Karazy
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, claimed on Thursday that all Western diplomatic personnel had remained in the city except for the Americans, but that was denied by the US. “The US Embassy is open. There are no changes to our operations and reports otherwise are false,” the US Embassy in Kyiv said in a statement.
Also on Thursday, Sergey Shoigu, the head of Russia’s Security Council, said the Russian attacks could happen at any time. “It can happen at any moment. And whenever we deem a response must be as powerful as we have repeatedly warned, we will retaliate for the terrorist attack that killed our very young people,” he said.
Amid the looming threat of a major Russian escalation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sent a letter to President Trump requesting additional air defense support. The US has continued to fuel the conflict by sending weapons into Ukraine, shipments that are now mostly funded by the US’s NATO allies.
A senior Russian member of parliament said this week that Russia’s strikes on Kyiv would target underground bunkers used by the Ukrainian military and its leadership. Writing in Responsible Statecraft, Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute, said that US and NATO military officers assisting Ukraine with its attacks on Russia are based in the underground military headquarters in Kyiv, which he expects to be targeted by Russia’s Oreshnik hypersonic missile.
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