WASHINGTON: The United States announced it has reopened its embassy in Kyiv late on Wednesday following it had shut for the day due to what it called the threat of an air attack, a day after Kyiv used US missiles to hit a target inside Russia.
US Embassy in Kyiv has resumed services after a temporary shelter-in-place suspension earlier today,” US envoy to Ukraine Bridget Brink wrote on X.
She said “We continue to encourage US citizens to remain vigilant, monitor official Ukrainian sources for updates, and be prepared to shelter in place if an air alert is announced.”
.@USEmbassyKyiv has resumed services following a temporary shelter-in-place suspension earlier today. We continue to encourage U.S. citizens to remain vigilant, monitor official Ukrainian sources for updates, and be prepared to shelter in place if an air alert is announced.…
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) November 20, 2024
Earlier, the State Department announced that the US Embassy in Kyiv will reopen today after closing due to the threat of an air attack.
Spokesperson Matthew Miller declined to say what kind of threat had forced the embassy to shut down on Wednesday as a safety precaution, AFP reported.
“We take the safety and security of our personnel… extremely seriously,” Miller said.
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The US mission had closed a day after Russia vowed to respond to Ukraine’s firing of long-range US-supplied missiles at Russian territory for the first time in the nearly three-year war.
“The US Embassy in Kyiv has received specific information of a potential significant air attack on November 20,” the embassy stated on its website.
A top Ukrainian official told media that a strike on Russia’s Bryansk region on Tuesday “was carried out by ATACMS missiles” — a reference to the US-supplied Army Tactical Missile System.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the attack showed Ukraine’s allies wanted to escalate the war.
“We will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Moscow. And we will react accordingly,” Russia’s top diplomat told a news conference at the G20 summit in Brazil.
The United States this week said it had cleared Kyiv to use ATACMS against military targets inside Russia — a long-standing Ukrainian request.
