Russia urges – Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and the European Union summoned Russian representatives after Moscow threatened fresh strikes on Kyiv and urged foreign diplomats and nationals to leave the Ukrainian capital, escalating tensions across Europe as Russia denied
By Tuesday morning, European capitals were already in motion—summoning Russian representatives after Moscow issued a stark warning to foreigners in Kyiv and signaled it was preparing another round of strikes.
Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and the European Union all took the same step after Russia threatened strikes on targets in Ukraine’s capital, urging foreign nationals, including diplomats, to leave Kyiv.
Russia’s embassy in Germany rejected the complaints from the EU and other governments. saying it aimed to conduct “surgical strikes” on military targets. The embassy described Russia’s position in sharp terms. insisting that Moscow would “never deliberately attack” civilian infrastructure or diplomatic missions.
“The threat to foreign citizens & diplomats to leave Kyiv is an unacceptable escalation,” the European Union’s foreign policy spokesperson Anitta Hipper said in a post on X, adding that Moscow should “stop hitting civilians.” The EU’s delegation, she said, is remaining in Kyiv.
The EU’s diplomatic service summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires on Tuesday. Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said he had summoned Russia’s ambassador. Nikolai Korchunov. to address “the explicit threats against foreign personnel in Ukraine.” Sweden had already moved on Monday evening. summoning Russia’s ambassador to “condemn Russia’s false claims of airspace violations in the Nordic-Baltic region and Russia’s threats against Latvia and other countries in the region.”.
The escalation has been building for days. Moscow said on Monday it intended to mount strikes on Ukrainian military targets and decision-making centres in Kyiv, one day after one of its heaviest bombardments of the city since the war began.
In its response to the EU complaints. Russia’s embassy in Berlin—posting on Telegram—quoted Ambassador Sergei Nechayev saying Moscow’s military would “never deliberately attack” civilian infrastructure or diplomatic missions. The embassy also said Nechayev “directly stated” that the “surgical strikes” on military targets in Kyiv were in response to what it called a “monstrous terrorist act” carried out by militants of the “Kyiv regime” using long-range drones.
That claim echoes a justification Moscow delivered to the United States. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday that the impending strikes were in response to Kyiv’s “continuing terrorist attacks.”
The dispute over what sparked the latest warning and what the strikes are meant to achieve is tied to recent events. Russia has cited a drone strike last Friday on a student dorm in Ukraine’s Russian-held Luhansk region in which 21 people died. Ukraine’s military denied the Russian accusation and said it had struck an elite drone command unit in the area.
The sequence of diplomatic moves—summoning Russian representatives across Europe while Moscow simultaneously urges foreign personnel to leave Kyiv—puts pressure on governments to respond not only to the prospect of “systemic strikes. ” but also to the message Russia is sending to diplomats and nationals on the ground.
Russia Ukraine Kyiv diplomats European Union Germany Norway Netherlands Espen Barth Eide Nikolai Korchunov Marco Rubio Sergei Lavrov Anitta Hipper systemic strikes drone strike Luhansk