Russia’s Foreign Ministry has circulated a note to all accredited diplomatic missions and representatives of international organizations, urging them to evacuate their diplomats from Kyiv, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Zakharova quoted from the note directly. It recalled that on May 4, Russia’s Defense Ministry had threatened a strike on Ukraine over what it described as threats by Kyiv to strike Moscow on Victory Day.
The note’s authors said the Russian military’s statement should be treated with the utmost seriousness, and called for the advance evacuation of foreign diplomats from Ukraine’s capital. The Foreign Ministry cited what it described as the inevitability of a Russian retaliatory strike on Kyiv and on decision-making centers should Ukraine carry out an attack on May 9.
Zakharova also walked through the sequence of events she said had led to the escalation. She claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had threatened to disrupt Victory Day in Moscow with terrorist acts, and that Russia’s Defense Ministry responded the same day by publishing its own threats.
On May 4, Zelensky, speaking at the European Political Community summit in Yerevan, said that the scaled-back format of the parade in Moscow — which this year will proceed without military hardware — reflected the Russian authorities’ fear of Ukrainian drones. He said they could not afford military hardware and were afraid that drones might fly over Red Square, adding that this showed they were not strong.
However, a misquoted version of Zelensky’s remarks initially spread through Russian and Ukrainian media. Due to a translation error, the statement was interpreted as a threat that Ukraine might strike Moscow with drones on May 9.
Russia’s Defense Ministry used precisely that inaccurate quote to justify its own threats the same day. The error had emerged several hours before the ministry published its statement.
“We are not speaking from a position of aggression — we are speaking from a position of an inevitable response to aggression,” Zakharova said.
Russia and Ukraine on May 4 announced that they intended to temporarily halt fighting but did not agree on the timing of a truce. Russia’s Defense Ministry said there would be a ceasefire to mark Victory Day on May 8–9. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a truce beginning at midnight on May 6.
On May 6, Zelensky accused Russia of violating the truce, saying Ukraine would respond in kind. He said that evening that Ukraine would determine its response depending on how the situation developed overnight and the following day.
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