Western countries are allegedly preparing backup plans to move their embassies from Kyiv to Lviv or eastern Poland due to increased Russian attacks on the capital.
This was reported by The Guardian, citing two high-ranking Western diplomats.
According to the publication, the diplomats have publicly stated that they will remain in Kyiv because their departure could be a propaganda victory for Russia. At the same time, they have said privately that they are developing contingency plans in case the Russians start deliberately attacking foreign diplomatic missions.
“Russia plans to freeze Kyiv, return it to the Stone Age [...] The situation is clearly deteriorating rapidly,” a Western diplomat told reporters.
At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine denies this information. The MFA spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi, in a comment to NV, stated that no requests (or reports of plans) to move from Kyiv have been received from foreign diplomatic missions.
"I donʼt know where some foreign publications got this information from. As of now, we at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have not received any similar requests or messages from foreign diplomatic missions about plans to move somewhere," Tykhyi said.
He added that according to the established procedure, diplomatic missions must notify the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry of their intention to relocate. According to Tykhyi, as of Friday evening (October 2), there had been no such requests from foreign diplomatic corps.
The Guardian notes that Russian attacks on Kyiv have intensified in recent days. The occupiers have begun to use jet drones more extensively, which are more difficult for air defenses to counter. However, Ukraine is still working on interceptors to shoot down such drones.
Offices, data centers, a school, a hospital, energy infrastructure, and bridges across the Dnipro River were hit. The Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko called the situation in the capital “very dramatic” and said the enemy was “tearing Kyiv to pieces”.
The President Volodymyr Zelensky also said that Russia was trying to force Ukrainians to leave the capital to create the impression that there is no Ukraine without Kyiv.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.