The United States announced Wednesday that its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, kyiv, had closed after receiving “specific information about a potential significant air attack.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, the embassy will be closed and embassy employees are instructed to shelter in place,” the statement said in a security alert, recommending U.S. citizens to take shelter if an air alert is announced.
Closing the embassy is not an unprecedented move amid the war, which reached its 1,000th day on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian capital was attacked by Russian drones early on Wednesday, the head of the Kyiv city military administration, Serhii Popko, said, adding that debris fell in the Dniprovskyy district.
“A fire broke out in an apartment of a multi-story residential building,” he wrote in a message on Telegram, adding that information about the victims was being clarified.
More than a dozen people have been killed in an intensifying wave of Russian air attacks, which have targeted energy infrastructure across Ukraine and caused widespread power outages.
The renewed threat against kyiv follows the announcement that Ukraine carried out its first strike on Russian territory with long-range weapons supplied by the United States, hitting a military installation in the Bryansk region with missiles ATACMS.
The Kremlin has reacted with fury to the easing of US restrictions on its ally, and on Tuesday morning Russian President Vladimir Putin formally revised his country’s nuclear doctrine, lowering the threshold for his country’s use of nuclear weapons.
Under the revised doctrine, Moscow could justify a nuclear strike if it were subject to attack by a non-nuclear country backed by a nuclear country.
An embassy spokesperson said the closure was unrelated to Putin’s announcement, but was “linked to ongoing threats of air attacks.” Staff are working remotely, the spokesperson told NBC News.
As Russia steps up its assault on Ukrainian skies, kyiv has also stepped up its strikes across the border.
Asked by reporters whether Putin had changed his daily routine after the U.S. policy shift, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded Wednesday: “There is no change in that.”
During the night, Russia intercepted 44 Ukrainian drones, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.
Three of the drones were shot down over the Belgorod border region, the ministry said, where the Ukrainians said they struck a Russian command post.
Daryna Mayer reported from kyiv, Ukraine and Mithil Aggarwal from Hong Kong.
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