The US has temporarily closed its embassy in Kyiv after receiving warning of a “potential significant air attack”, advising American citizens to be prepared to move immediately to a shelter in the event of an air-raid warning.
Such warnings are rare and likely to be based on specific intelligence. It comes amid reports that the US has approved the provision of anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine – a further step after Washington granted Kyiv permission to use long-range missiles inside Russia.
The embassy said the alert applied to all of Ukraine and advised people to monitor the media for updates. It added: “The US embassy in Kyiv has received specific information of a potential significant air attack on November 20.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the embassy will be closed, and embassy employees are being instructed to shelter in place. The US embassy recommends US citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced.”
The state department spokesperson Matthew Miller later told reporters that the embassy was expected to return to normal operations on Thursday.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow would respond “appropriately” a day after Ukraine fired six of the newly approved US-made Atacms missiles into an ammunition warehouse in the south-western Bryansk region.
Hours earlier, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, signed a revised nuclear doctrine lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons amid warnings from Russian MPs that the US action was bringing “world war three” closer.
Overnight, the Pentagon said it had seen no sign that Russia was planning to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, and accused Russian politicians of engaging in irresponsible rhetoric.
“We’re going to continue to monitor, but we don’t have any indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon within Ukraine,” said the Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh.
Overnight in Kyiv, there had been intermittent air raid alerts but no major incidents. A fire in an apartment block that was feared to have been caused by debris from a falling drone was in fact caused by a domestic appliance.
Biden’s approval of the provision of anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine, a US official said, was a step that could help slow Russian advances in the east of the country, especially when used with other munitions from the US.
The US expected Ukraine to use the mines in its own territory, though it had committed not to use them in areas populated with its own civilians, the official said.
The US has provided Ukraine with anti-tank mines throughout its war with Russia, but the addition of anti-personnel mines aimed to blunt the advance of Russian ground troops, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The office of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian defence ministry, the Russian defence ministry and the Kremlin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The US mines differed from Russia’s because they were “non-persistent”, becoming inert after a preset period, the official said. They require a battery to detonate, and will not explode once the battery runs out.
The move comes amid claims that some of the more than 10,000 North Korean troops deployed to Kursk by Russia’s military have already participated in battles there. A South Korean lawmaker, Park Sun-won, said on Wednesday that its spy agency was still trying to determine the exact number of North Korean troop casualties and whether any had surrendered, amid conflicting information.
North Korea had also shipped additional arms for the war in Ukraine, including self-propelled howitzers and multiple rocket launchers, Park, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, told reporters, citing the National Intelligence Service.
On Tuesday, Ukraine used US Atacms missiles to strike into Russian territory, taking advantage of newly granted permission from Biden’s outgoing administration on the war’s 1,000th day.
Putin lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike on the same day in response to a broader range of conventional attacks.
Moscow said the use of Atacms, the longest-range missiles Washington has yet supplied to Ukraine, was a clear signal the west wanted to escalate the conflict.
The strike has also prompted renewed fears of a reprisal though hybrid warfare, a chaotic tool of conflict that muddies borders and broadens the scope of a frontline.
With Reuters
