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.

A top Russian official has threatened European Union diplomats who are refusing to evacuate Kyiv, taunting that the bloc must have “diplomats to spare” as Western missions defy Moscow’s demand to leave ahead of promised strikes on the Ukrainian capital.

Getting into it: Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council and a former president, mocked the EU on X Tuesday. “The EU has said it will maintain its diplomatic presence in Kiev unchanged, despite Russia’s warnings. Well, apparently they’ve got diplomats to spare and need to trim the headcount.” The taunt followed a blunt refusal by European diplomats to leave, led by the EU’s ambassador to Kyiv, Katarina Mathernova, who called Russia’s demand a “masterpiece of hypocrisy” and insisted “the EU is not going anywhere.”

The threat also triggered a coordinated backlash, with the EU, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden all summoning Russian envoys (Brussels branding the warning to diplomats “an unacceptable escalation”).

The standoff stems from Russia’s announcement Monday that it would begin “systematic strikes” on Ukrainian military facilities and “decision-making centres” in Kyiv. Russia also openly called for foreign nationals and embassy personnel to leave the city immediately. According to Russian officials, the strikes are retaliation for a Ukrainian drone strike Friday on a college in Russian-occupied Starobilsk that Moscow said killed 21 people, mostly young women (Ukraine denied targeting civilians, saying it hit a military facility running elite drone operations).

Acting on Putin’s orders, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov relayed the warning to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a call and reportedly suggested the US evacuate its own embassy staff. Rubio, speaking to reporters in India, downplayed the idea that Russia had directly asked the US to pull its diplomats and reiterated that Washington stood ready to mediate.

This all comes as the capital reels from one of the worst poundings it has taken since Russia invaded, including a rare Oreshnik hypersonic missile that Russia fired near Kyiv on Sunday (only the third time Moscow has deployed the weapon since its 2022 invasion).