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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington remains ready to help mediate the war between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow warned of new strikes on Kyiv.
Russia’s warning, which included a call for foreign diplomats to leave the Ukrainian capital, marked a fresh escalation in the more than four-year war, with Moscow pledging “systematic” attacks on Kyiv, including against “decision-making centers.”
Rubio’s remarks came after Russia launched a large-scale assault on Ukraine over the weekend, including the use of its Oreshnik hypersonic missile, and following a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“Every time you see these big strikes from one side or the other, it's a reminder of why this is a terrible war that's now gone on longer than the Second World War, and it needs to come to an end,” Rubio told reporters during an official visit to India.
“The U.S. stands ready and prepared to help do whatever we can to help facilitate the end of this war, and hopefully the opportunity will present itself at some point,” he added.
Russia said it would begin launching “systematic strikes” against Ukrainian military-industrial facilities in Kyiv.
“Under the current circumstances, the Russian Armed Forces are starting to launch systematic strikes against Ukrainian military-industrial facilities in Kyiv,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The strikes will target both decision-making centers and command posts ... We are warning foreign citizens, including personnel of diplomatic missions and international organizations, to leave the city as soon as possible,” it added.
Lavrov relayed the warning to Rubio during a phone call on Monday and urged him to evacuate U.S. diplomats, according to Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
Asked about the warning, Rubio said Russia had “sent a notice to all the embassies,” not only the U.S. mission.
Russia had also issued a similar warning earlier this month, calling on diplomats and foreign citizens to leave Kyiv after threatening large-scale strikes if Ukraine disrupted a military parade on Red Square.
An overnight Russian strike killed a 45-year-old man in Odesa, regional official Sergii Krasylenko said on Telegram early Tuesday.
Russia’s weekend barrage involving dozens of drones and missiles killed four people and caused extensive damage across Kyiv.
Among the weapons used was Russia’s Oreshnik hypersonic missile, which Moscow says can travel at 10 times the speed of sound and carry nuclear warheads.
The attacks followed Russian accusations that Ukraine struck a vocational school in the Russian-occupied Lugansk region, killing 21 people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin subsequently ordered retaliation.
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Western diplomatic missions rejected Moscow’s evacuation warning.
A spokesperson for France’s Foreign Ministry said Monday: “We're used to Putin's threats. It is out of the question to evacuate.”
The European Union’s ambassador to Kyiv wrote on Facebook: “We are not going anywhere.”
Ukraine dismissed Russia’s warning as “rhetoric.”
“We are now telling our partners that they should not give in to all this Russian blackmail,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
U.S.-led efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting have stalled in recent months amid the conflict in the Middle East.
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