Are foreign embassies evacuating from Kyiv after Russian threats?

No foreign embassies in Kyiv have decided to evacuate staff following Russian threats of new attacks on the Ukrainian capital, the Kyiv Independent has learned.

The development comes after the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a public warning about a new wave of long-range attacks on Kyiv, including strikes targeting what Moscow called Ukraine's "decision-making centers."

Russia urged foreign citizens, including diplomats, to leave the city.

At a United Nations meeting in New York on May 26, nearly 50 countries issued a joint statement condemning Russia's threats against embassies in Kyiv.

The U.S. did not join the statement. The State Department official told the Kyiv Independent that Washington has no plans to evacuate personnel.

"The State Department has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans and regularly reviews the security posture of Embassy Kyiv," the official said.

"There are no changes to embassy operations."

Representatives of the European Union and several member states have also publicly said they will maintain their diplomatic presence in Kyiv.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on May 26 issued an indirect threat toward European diplomats remaining in the city.

"The EU has said it will maintain its diplomatic presence in Kyiv unchanged, despite Russia's warnings," Medvedev wrote on X. "Well, apparently they've got diplomats to spare and need to trim the headcount."

Still, the embassies of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan confirmed that operations continue as planned.

A Ukrainian official familiar with the matter said the Foreign Ministry has not received any notices from embassies about plans to evacuate.

Several European countries, including Germany, Netherlands, and Norway, along with the European Union, summoned senior Russian diplomats to protest Moscow's warning suggesting further attacks on Kyiv.

The threats followed one of Russia's largest combined missile and drone attacks on Kyiv days earlier, which killed two people and injured more than 80 others. Strikes were recorded nearly in every district of the capital.

Albania said on May 24 that the residence of its ambassador in Kyiv was damaged during the attack.

President Volodymyr Zelensky previously warned that Russia was preparing potential strikes on the President's Office building in central Kyiv.

Most foreign embassies in Kyiv are located in the city's central historic district.

Moscow framed the threats as retaliation for a Ukrainian strike in occupied Luhansk Oblast. Russia claimed the attack hit a dormitory, while Ukraine said it targeted a Russian drone command facility.

Russia has repeatedly used claims of retaliation to justify large-scale strikes against Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure throughout the full-scale war, despite being the aggressor in the war.