U.S. Closes Its Kyiv Embassy, Warning of ‘Significant Air Attack’

The United States Embassy in Kyiv issued an urgent warning on Wednesday morning that Russia might launch “a significant air attack,” closing the embassy and telling employees to shelter in place.

Air-raid alerts are a daily fact of life in Ukraine and the capital often comes under drone and missile attacks, but the U.S. embassy rarely issues such a specific alert or temporarily shuts down. At least two other Western embassies — Greece and Italy — announced that they too would close for the day after the U.S. warning.

The warning came one day after Ukraine’s military used American-made ballistic missiles to strike into Russian territory for the first time, after receiving long-sought authorization from President Biden to do so. The Kremlin had long warned that such strikes would be treated as an escalation, and on Tuesday vowed to respond.

“We will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia,” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei V. Lavrov, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “And we will react accordingly.”

In its message on Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy said it had “received specific information” about a potential attack, but did not offer details. It urged Americans to pay special attention to air-raid alerts.

Just before 2 p.m., the Ukrainian authorities warned about a potential ballistic missile attack and urged people in Kyiv to seek shelter.