On Wednesday, the United States embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, was temporarily closed due to the possibility of a Russian air attack on the city. This comes on the heels of the Biden administration’s giving the go-ahead to Ukraine to use long-range American-made missiles to strike Russian targets.
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, issued a warning after receiving “specific information of a potential significant air attack” allegedly taking place on Wednesday.
The embassy in Ukraine’s capital is temporarily closed following the alert and employees are being asked to prepare to shelter in place.
“The U.S. Embassy recommends U.S. citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced,” the statement said.
Any Russian strike that damaged the American embassy, even if unintended, would put both Russia and the United States in a precarious position. An embassy is considered the legal territory of the nation that owns that embassy, meaning that an attack on an embassy is the equivalent of an attack on the territory of the nation in question.
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The Biden administration’s OK for Ukraine to deploy and fire the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) will almost certainly be considered an escalation by Moscow. The ATACMS can be launched from the MLRS and HIMARS launchers. On Tuesday, Ukrainian forces first fired six ATACMS missiles at targets inside Russia.
This comes after Ukraine fired American-supplied long-range missiles into Russia on Tuesday, marking the first time for Kyiv to do so in the 1,000 days of war, which was authorized by President Biden on Sunday.
This was not the first time the embassy has issued a warning of potential danger and a significant attack.
A similar warning was issued around Ukraine’s Independence Day on Aug. 24.
Tsar Vladimir I, it should be noted, has recently been engaging in some nuclear saber-rattling. It’s unclear how serious he is about this.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a revised nuclear doctrine on Tuesday, warning that any attack on Russia supported by a country with nuclear power could be grounds for a nuclear response.
Note the wording: “…supported by a country with nuclear power” does not mandate that the attack must be carried out using nuclear weapons or by a country with nuclear weapons – only that the attack on Russia is supported by a country with nuclear weapons. Such as the United States’ support for Ukraine. It’s unlikely that Putin would order the use of even small-scale tactical nuclear devices (as though any nuclear weapon can be considered “small scale”) as that would present a major escalation – and prevailing winds would possibly blow fallout back into Russian territory.
Putin has, however, left that door open.
This is, again, a developing situation. We will bring you updates as events warrant.
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