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The US embassy in Kyiv has briefly closed its doorways after receiving intelligence that Russia is planning a large-scale assault on the Ukrainian capital.
In a uncommon warning, the embassy mentioned it “acquired particular info of a possible vital air assault on November 20”, prompting it to close down on Wednesday and advising its employees to “shelter in place”.
An embassy official instructed the Monetary Instances the intelligence was about “a mixed missile and drone assault”, including that the assault was unrelated to Russia’s decreasing the brink for its use of nuclear weapons.
“It is a non permanent change in posture, and we anticipate a fast return to common operations,” they mentioned.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Tuesday for nuclear weapons use to incorporate assaults by superior western weapons techniques. Earlier on Tuesday, Ukraine launched its first strike on Russian soil utilizing US Atacms missiles, concentrating on a Russian navy arsenal in Bryansk area.
The US embassy has solely issued these sorts of statements a handful of occasions since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
It instructed employees to shelter in place and urged US residents in Ukraine to hunt shelter, monitor native media and comply with the steerage of Ukrainian authorities. It warned US residents to organize for doable non permanent lack of electrical energy by having reserves of water, meals, and medicine.
The heightened safety measure got here three days after the Biden administration lifted restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US-supplied Atacms inside Russia, marking a giant coverage shift earlier than Donald Trump takes workplace in January.
The alert mirrored rising considerations over Russia’s newest escalating wave of lethal drone and missile strikes which have destroyed or broken residential buildings and demanding infrastructure.
Ukraine’s authorities depend on their Nato companions for intelligence referring to potential strikes and such an announcement by the embassy meant there was “a particular danger”, mentioned Yuriy Ignat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air defence forces.
Ignat mentioned there was nothing that Ukraine may add to bolster its air defences in mild of the heightened menace, as all the pieces the nation had was already in use and overstretched. “We simply have to shoot down as a lot as doable.”
Russia has intensified its assaults in current months, with the variety of drones deployed on a month-to-month foundation greater than quadrupling in October in contrast with August.
Ukraine’s air defence forces mentioned they have been solely in a position to down 56 out of 122 Russian drones launched early on Wednesday.
Andriy Kovalenko of the Middle for Countering Disinformation, a Ukrainian authorities communications platform, mentioned on Wednesday that Russia had collected vital stockpiles of missiles “for potential large-scale strikes on Ukraine”.
He additional warned folks “to stay vigilant” and reply to the air raid alerts.
