US Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, temporarily closed ‘out of an abundance of caution’, warns of ‘potentially significant’ air strike

LONDON — US Embassy in Kiev, UkrainianIt closed its doors temporarily on Wednesday “out of an abundance of caution” as it warned that a potentially “significant” airstrike was coming.

“The U.S. Embassy recommends that U.S. citizens be prepared to seek shelter immediately in the event of a weather alert,” the embassy said. an update.

The embassy said it had received “exclusive” information about the potential strike on November 20.

The warning came a day after the Ukrainian army launched its first campaign, amid fears that the war could escalate US-made long-range ATACMS missiles Towards targets within Russia. US President Joe Biden U.S. officials told ABC News that Kiev gave permission for these attacks.

This attack, which Russia said it defeated, took place on the day Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the updated nuclear doctrine. A Kremlin spokesman said the updates meant “the use of Western non-nuclear rockets by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against Russia could lead to a nuclear response.”

A U.S. Department of Defense spokesman sought to downplay that update on Tuesday, saying Russia had been signaling “over the last few weeks” that it would update the doctrine.

“This is the same irresponsible rhetoric that we have seen before and have clearly seen over the last two years,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said, according to a transcript. “So that’s something we’ll continue to monitor, but we don’t have any indication that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.”

He added that Russia had committed an “action that escalated tensions” by bringing North Korean soldiers to the battlefield inside Russia.

Russia, on the other hand, accused the Biden administration of trying to prolong the conflict in its final months.

“If we look generally at the trends of the outgoing US administration, they are determined, completely determined, to prolong the war in Ukraine and are doing their best to do this in the time they have left,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. he told reporters on Wednesday, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

Russia fired about 122 unmanned attack aircraft overnight into areas across Ukraine, including the capital Kiev, Ukraine’s air force said on Wednesday morning. The military said at least 56 of the launched drones were hit.

In addition, many guided missiles were fired in the Dnipro region in the southeast, as well as in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions in the northeast. The air force said an anti-aircraft missile was fired at Kharkiv.

“No one who asked Ukrainians if they were afraid of Putin’s escalation woke up to the sound of hypersonic missiles exploding over their city,” said Inna Sovsun, a member of the Ukrainian parliament. said Wednesday on social media.

ABC News’ Morgan Winsor, Joe Simonetti, David Brennan and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.