Russia tells diplomats to leave Kyiv in case Moscow launches mass strikes
Key takeaways
- Moscow threatens retaliatory strikes if Ukraine attacks Russia during Victory Day commemorations.
- Zakharova said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had made “aggressive and threatening statements” about disrupting the commemorations at a meeting of the European Political Community in Armenia on Monday.
- “Several EU countries were present,” she said. “None of them reprimanded the ringleader of the Kyiv regime.”
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Moscow threatens retaliatory strikes if Ukraine attacks Russia during Victory Day commemorations.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Smoke rises in Kyiv, Ukraine, after Russian drone and missile strikes [File: Gleb Garanich/Reuters]By News Agencies Published On 6 May 20266 May 2026Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it has warned diplomatic missions to promptly evacuate their staff from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in case Moscow launches a mass strike on the city in response to potential Ukrainian attempts to disrupt Russia’s May 9 Victory Day commemorations.
In a video posted on Telegram on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova urged diplomats to heed the Defence Ministry’s warning of a strike, issued on Monday, in the event of a Ukrainian attack during the commemorations of the Soviet Union’s victory against Nazi Germany in World War II and a military parade in Red Square.