The embassies of EU countries, the USA, and other states continue working in Kyiv, despite massive Russian air strikes on the Ukrainian capital. The Serbian embassy in Ukraine, to which Russian propagandists devote particular attention, left Kyiv as Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Serbian embassy employees are temporarily working from Belgrade.
“Alarming sign” and “something is up” – Russian media continue to actively participate in the Kremlin’s information and psychological operations, spreading disinformation about “embassies massively fleeing Kyiv”. They focus on the Serbian embassy in the Ukrainian capital closing, stating that this fact allegedly indicates that a new Russian attack on Kyiv is inevitable.
“The colossal regrouping and concentration of new forces together with the new military satellite launched by the Russian Federation testify to one thing. In the next two weeks, what will later be called the turning point in the 2022 war in history textbooks will take place,” Russian media write, quoting “experts”.
Russian media manipulate statements of diplomats of numerous countries whose embassies continue to work in Kyiv. In light of October’s random missile strikes and Russian drone attacks on peaceful Ukrainian cities, several countries, China and Egypt in particular, did call on their citizens to leave the territory of Ukraine. A similar appeal was published by the American embassy, stressing that the reason for this is Russia’s continuous attacks on Ukraine, which pose a direct threat to the civilian population and infrastructure.
At the same time, EU and US embassies, as well as a number of other countries continue their work in Kyiv, despite massive Russian air attacks on the capital. Diplomats themselves state that they do not intend to leave Ukraine, close their embassies or shut down diplomatic missions, as was the case at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. On the contrary, on their official social media pages for example, EU ambassadors write that they, like thousands of Ukrainians, were in shelters during the air raids. Read more about this in the StopFake article Fake: EU Countries Urgently Evacuating Diplomats From Ukraine
The same applies to the statement of the Serbian Embassy, which was widely circulated by the Russian media as a so-called “alarming sign”. The official website of the Serbian Embassy in Ukraine does indeed contain a message without a publication date about temporarily closing the diplomatic mission in Kyiv to protect the safety of its personnel. Russian media however “forgot” to mention that the Serbian embassy was evacuated from Kyiv back in March 2022 – at the very beginning of the Russian invasion – and has been operating from Belgrade ever since.
According Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Olen Nikolenko, Russia is deliberately inciting panic by spreading disinformation about “foreign embassies urgently leaving” Ukraine.
“We are constantly in touch with foreign embassies that returned to Ukraine after February 24. So far, no one – the US, Great Britain, Canada, the EU and many others – has announced their intention to leave Ukrainian territory. Everyone is in their embassies. We greatly appreciate foreign diplomats staying with Ukrainians in this difficult time. We are grateful for that,” Nikolenko emphasized.
Nikolenko also pointed out that Russia attacks not just critical infrastructure and the civilian population in Ukraine. He also noted that on October 10, Russian missiles damaged two foreign diplomatic building in Kyiv and urged foreign diplomats, as well as Ukrainians, not to ignore air raid warning signals and take safety in shelters when there is a threat of a Russian air attack.
