©picture alliance / Anadolu | Sefa Karacan
Russia has announced a major bombardment of Kiev. The Kremlin is exhorting diplomats and foreigners to leave the Ukrainian capital. In doing so, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be directly threatening foreign embassies in Kiev for the first time. However, an international escalation lurks around the corner should the Kremlin effectively bomb the diplomatic quarter in Kiev. Will it remain mere threats or will Putin keep to this word force other countries to respond with force?
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on the United States to evacuate its embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. According to a press release from the Russian foreign ministry, during a telephone conversation with his U.S. counterpart Marco Rubio, Lavrov stressed that the situation in the Ukrainian capital is "dangerous and unstable." Russia had issued a public warning earlier in the day, urging foreign citizens, diplomatic staff and employees of international organizations to leave the city as soon as possible. For their part, Ukrainian authorities are calling on their residents to take cover and stay away from military and administrative infrastructure.
Dutch diplomats not going anywhere
Dutch Foreign Minister, Tom Berendsen, is putting the Netherlands' Russian ambassador on the spot. Vladimir Tarabrin will explain the recent attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kiev, in which a ballistic Oresjnik missile was deployed. Berendsen calls the Russian attacks "unacceptable". "We want Russia to really sit down at the negotiating table. And what we actually see is exactly the opposite," the minister said. He's not going to evacuate Dutch citizens from Kiev. "Dutch people in Kiev will stay there, we will not be intimidated. Our diplomats remain in post."
Other places in the EU are also taking Russian diplomats to task over the Kremlin's attacks and war language.
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot is also unimpressed by the Russian threat. "I have requested that the Russian ambassador to Belgium be summoned today," he wrote on Wednesday in a post on X. "Russia's announcement calling on diplomats and foreign citizens to leave Kiev ahead of the planned attacks is unacceptable. Threatening embassies is not diplomacy, it's intimidation. And it's a flagrant violation of international law and the Vienna Convention."
"Belgium is not going anywhere. We are staying in Kiev. We stand behind Ukraine. And we will not be intimidated. There is only one aggressor in this war, and that is Russia. The solution to end this cycle of escalation is remarkably simple: Russia must cease its aggression and engage in real peace talks," said the Belgian foreign minister.
©picture alliance / Anadolu | Sefa Karacan