Already a subscriber? Make sure to log into your account before viewing this content. You can access your account by hitting the “login” button on the top right corner. Still unable to see the content after signing in? Make sure your card on file is up-to-date.

Russia has threatened to launch a wave of “systematic strikes” against Kyiv and urged foreign nationals and diplomats to leave the Ukrainian capital, days after carrying out one of its largest attacks on the city since the start of the war.

Getting into it: In a statement Monday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said its strikes would target “specific sites where UAVs are designed, manufactured, programmed, and prepared for use,” along with “decision-making centres and command posts,” and warned that because those facilities are “scattered throughout Kyiv,” foreign citizens (including diplomatic and international organization personnel) should leave “as soon as possible.”

Moscow framed the campaign as retaliation for a Ukrainian drone strike last week on a student dormitory in Starobilsk, in Russian-occupied Luhansk, which Russian officials said killed 21 people, mainly teenage girls, and called “the last straw” and proof of the “Nazi and terrorist nature of the Kyiv regime.” Ukraine’s military denied hitting civilians and said its actual target was an elite Russian drone unit operating nearby.

Russia took the unusual step of relaying the warning directly to the US, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov telling Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Monday phone call that Russia was urging the evacuation of US diplomats from Kyiv. Rubio downplayed the idea that it amounted to a direct request to pull American staff, noting Russia had “sent a notice to all the embassies,” and said Lavrov had passed along a message from Putin intended for Trump.

Ukraine also rejected the Russian warning as an intimidation tactic, with Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemning it as “shameless blackmail” and urging allies not to cave. Kyiv’s partners largely held firm, with more than 70 foreign diplomats visiting a heavily damaged neighborhood Monday to pay respects to the victims.

This all comes after a massive aerial assault over the weekend that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said killed at least four people and injured around 90 in Kyiv and surrounding areas. According to Zelenskyy, Russia fired 90 missiles “of various types” (including 36 ballistic missiles) and 600 drones, hitting a water supply facility, schools, a market, and dozens of residential buildings.