The US government is urging Americans in Ukraine leave the country immediately, warning that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch attacks on civilian infrastructure and government facilities ahead of Ukraine’s independence day.
Wednesday anniversary — marking 31 years since Ukraine severed ties with the Soviet Union — also marks six months since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of the country.
“The US Embassy urges US citizens to depart Ukraine now using available private ground transportation options if it is safe to do so,” said a security alert on the embassy website. “The security situation throughout Ukraine is highly volatile and conditions can deteriorate without warning.”
The renewed US alert comes after similar warnings from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials that Moscow may carry out intense attacks, including missile strikes, around August 24.
“We all need to be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious,” Zelensky said in a video message over the weekend.
Ukraine’s government warned citizens to be “especially careful” on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“There is an increased threat of missile attacks and other provocations, both inside and outside the country,” said Andrii Yusov, a spokesman for the Defense Intelligence service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
“They are crazy about dates and symbols, so it would be quite logical to be on guard and be prepared for the fact that Independence Day will also be attacked. Ukraine is ready for this,” he continued.
“The air raid alarm is a serious signal, which everyone must take into account. Especially on August 23-24, it is not just words, special care must be taken,” Yusov added.
In Kyiv, the city’s military administration banned all large gatherings between Monday and Thursday, saying “it is forbidden to hold mass events, peaceful gatherings, rallies and other events related to a large gathering of people.”
General Mykola Zhyrnov, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said the order was imposed so that security forces could respond “in a timely manner to threats of missile and bomb attacks by Russian Federation troops in decision-making centers, military installations, defense industry facilities, critical infrastructure, and nearby residential areas.”
Last week, the State Department said it had summoned Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov to a meeting so that the United States “could warn Russia against any escalation of its war against Ukraine,” a department spokesman said Monday. .
This included calling on Russia to “cease all military operations at or near Ukraine’s nuclear facilities and return full control of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant to Ukraine,” the official added.
The city of Nikopol, across the river from the occupied plant, came under shelling on Ukraine’s National Flag Day on Tuesday, a local official said.
Yevhen Yevtushenko, head of the Nikopol district military administration, warned locals to avoid mass gatherings, open areas and infrastructure facilities until Thursday.
Kyiv and Moscow have made a barrage of accusations about security and military action at and around the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear complex. But the lack of independent access to the plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since March, makes it impossible to verify what is happening there.
Recent satellite images from Maxar Technologies of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant they show no signs of “systemic bombardment,” despite claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Ukrainian military was carrying out repeated military strikes on the facility.
Tensions in the war increased this week with the death of darya duginaRussian political commentator and daughter of prominent ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin.
Russia has blamed the Ukrainian special services for his murder, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
“The murder of journalist Darya Dugina has been solved, it was prepared by the Ukrainian special services, by a citizen of Ukraine,” TASS reported, citing Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which named a woman as the perpetrator and he said he had fled to Estonia after the attack.
Ukraine has denied any involvement in Dugina’s murder and has called the FSB’s claims fictional.
Dugina, the editor of a Russian disinformation website, died after a bomb planted in a car she was driving exploded outside Moscow on Saturday night.
Dugina’s father Alexander Duginis a prominent Russian nationalist credited with being the architect or “spiritual guide” of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.