Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called US State Secretary Marco Rubio to advise him to evacuate US citizens and diplomats from Kyiv, as the Kremlin plans to continue heavy strikes on the Ukrainian capital, according to a statement published by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday.

Lavrov called his US counterpart at the request of President Vladimir Putin to tell him that Russia was launching systematic and consistent strikes against facilities in Kyiv as well as against the relevant “decision-making centres”.

The US State Department said the two spoke at Lavrov’s request. “The parties exchanged views on the Russia-Ukraine war, bilateral relations, and the situation in Iran,” department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.

Russia has bombed Ukrainian cities regularly, Kyiv included, since 2022. However, this Sunday, Ukraine came under a massive Russian drone and missile barrage that included an Oreshnik ballistic missile. Moscow framed the attack as retaliation for the recent Ukrainian drone attack on a college in the Russia-occupied Luhansk region that killed 21 students.

Ukraine’s General Staff has said its forces hit the headquarters of a Russian drone unit operating in Starobilsk and it rejected Putin’s allegation that civilian facilities were hit.

Moscow said it would continue a series of systematic retaliatory strikes. In an earlier statement on Monday, the Kremlin urged all foreign nationals, including staff of diplomatic missions and representatives of international organisations, to leave Kyiv as soon as possible and advised residents of the Ukrainian capital to stay away from the military and administrative infrastructure.