Russia tells foreigners and diplomats to leave Kyiv
Moscow, 3 October 2026 — Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday renewed its warning that foreign nationals and diplomatic staff should leave Kyiv and refrain from travelling to Ukraine, saying Russian forces will continue large-scale strikes on the capital and that those who stay are knowingly exposing themselves to “mortal danger.”
In a statement published on the ministry’s website, Moscow said the strikes are a response to what it called Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilians and civilian infrastructure. It said the armed forces “will continue to carry out large-scale retaliatory strikes” on military targets in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, and that “responsibility for any potential negative consequences rests entirely with those who ignore this warning.”
The ministry noted that it first urged foreigners and embassy personnel to leave Kyiv in a statement on 25 May 2026, in diplomatic notes to foreign governments, and at a briefing for the diplomatic corps by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin on 27 May. It said not everyone had heeded those warnings, that many embassies are still working in the capital, and that foreign officials continue to visit Ukraine.
Reuters reported the same message: Russia pledged to continue “targeted retaliatory strikes” on Kyiv and urged foreign nationals, including diplomatic mission staff, against staying in Ukraine or travelling there. Other outlets, including dpa and the Kyiv Post, described the language as a repeat warning of “mortal danger” tied to an intensified air campaign.
The warning comes as Russian drone and missile attacks on the capital have increased. Ukrainian officials say strikes have hit bridges over the Dnipro and energy infrastructure. On 2 October, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city should be on a war footing and that the enemy was “tearing Kyiv apart.” Reuters noted that a bridge across the Dnipro was hit in an air attack on Saturday, after the Southern Bridge had been fully closed following earlier strikes.
Ukraine has pushed back on suggestions that foreign missions are preparing to leave. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, Heorhii Tykhyi, said that as of Friday evening the ministry had received no formal notices from embassies of plans to relocate. Under diplomatic practice, missions are expected to notify the host government before moving. The Guardian has reported that some Western diplomats have drafted contingency plans to shift staff to Lviv or eastern Poland if Russia began deliberately striking diplomatic premises — planning that, according to those accounts, is not the same as a decision to evacuate.
Several governments, including the United States, the United Kingdom, EU member states, Norway and Switzerland, have already advised their own citizens against travel to Ukraine, most recently in August, the Russian statement said. Moscow’s latest note goes further: it frames continued presence in Kyiv itself as a risk tied to ongoing strikes, and places the burden of any harm on those who remain.
The May warning followed a Ukrainian drone strike on a student dormitory in Starobilsk, in Russian-occupied Luhansk region, which killed at least 18 people. At the time, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was reported to have urged US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to evacuate US embassy staff. Saturday’s statement does not set a deadline or a one-day window. It restates a standing call to leave the city and stay out of Ukraine while strikes continue.
For Kyiv’s roughly three million residents, the practical effect is indirect. Moscow is not ordering Ukrainian civilians out of the capital; it is again telling them to keep clear of military and administrative sites, while directing the evacuation-style warning at foreigners and diplomats. Whether embassies treat the latest note as a reason to thin staff, or as rhetoric meant to raise the political cost of staying, is still an open question. As of the latest Ukrainian statements, no mission has formally told Kyiv it is leaving.
