The US embassy in Kyiv will remain closed after receiving a warning of a potentially significant Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital.
The precautionary step came after Russian officials promised a response to President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets on Russian soil with US-made missiles - a move that angered the Kremlin.
The war, which reached its 1000-day milestone on Tuesday, has taken on a growing international dimension with the arrival of North Korean troops to help Russia on the battlefield - a development which US officials said prompted Biden’s policy shift.
Russian President Vladimir Putin subsequently lowered the threshold for using his nuclear arsenal, with the new doctrine announced Tuesday permitting a potential nuclear response by Moscow even to a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power.
That could potentially include Ukrainian attacks backed by the US.
Western leaders dismissed the Russian move as an attempt to deter Ukraine’s allies from providing further support to Kyiv, but the escalating tension weighed on stock markets after Ukraine used American-made ATACMS longer-range missiles for the first time to strike a target inside Russia.
The US embassy on Wednesday said its closure and attack warning were issued in the context of ongoing Russian missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and anticipated a quick return to regular operations.
Western and Ukrainian officials say Russia been stockpiling powerful long-range missiles, possibly in an upcoming effort to crush the Ukrainian power grid as winter settles in.
Military analysts say the US decision on the range over which American-made missiles can be used is not expected to be a game-changer in the war, but it could help weaken the Russian war effort, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank.
“Ukrainian long-range strikes against military objects within Russia’s rear are crucial for degrading Russian military capabilities throughout the theatre," it said.
North Korea recently supplied additional artillery systems to Russia, according to South Korea.
It said North Korean soldiers were assigned to Russia’s marine and airborne forces units and some of them have already begun fighting alongside the Russians on the front lines.
Ukraine struck a factory in Russia’s Belgorod region that makes cargo drones for the armed forces in an overnight attack, according to Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s Security Council.
He also claimed Ukraine hit an arsenal in Russia’s Novgorod region, near the town of Kotovo, about 680km behind the Ukrainian border.
The arsenal stored artillery ammunition and various types of missiles, he said.
It was not possible to independently verify the claims.
Russia pounded the Ukrainian power grid with 120 missiles and 90 drones on Sunday, causing damage to the power system and killing seven people in an attack that renewed fears over the durability of the hobbled energy network.
The embassy in Kyiv urged US citizens in Ukraine to have reserves of water, food and other essentials such as required medications for the event of a "possible temporary loss of electricity and water" caused by Russian strikes.
with Reuters
