Russia urged the United States on May 25 to evacuate its diplomats and citizens from Kyiv, as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Russian forces were launching strikes on Ukrainian military-linked facilities and what Moscow described as decision-making centers in the capital.
Lavrov conveyed the evacuation recommendation during a phone call with Rubio, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Russia said its forces were carrying out “systematic and consistent strikes” against sites used by the Ukrainian military and relevant “decision-making centres” in Kyiv.
Ukraine pushed back. Its Foreign Ministry said the threat level in Kyiv “remains the same as in previous years and months” and that Ukraine was ready to help diplomatic missions arrange additional security measures, according to the Associated Press.
European officials were sharper in their response. The European Union summoned Russia’s envoy in Brussels, with European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper accusing Moscow of “trying to sow panic,” AP reported. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux called the warning “new intimidation from Moscow.”
Lavrov also raised what the Russian Foreign Ministry described as agreements reached “at the highest level at the proposal of the US” in Anchorage in August 2025, saying European governments and Kyiv were undermining them, the statement said.
The two ministers discussed tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and the situation surrounding Cuba, the statement added.
Despite the friction, Lavrov and Rubio agreed to keep working toward normalizing conditions for each other’s diplomatic missions, the ministry said, acknowledging what it called “known differences” between the two countries.
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