Western embassies in Kyiv were closed due to the threat of Russian airstrikes after Biden’s policy change

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – The U.S. and other Western embassies in Kyiv said they would remain closed Wednesday for security reasons, and the U.S. delegation said it had received a warning of a potential Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital.

The precautionary move came after Russian officials promised a response to President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to hit Russian targets with US-made missiles – a move that angered the Kremlin.

The U.S. embassy said its shutdown and attack warning were issued in response to ongoing Russian missile and drone attacks in Kyiv and that normal operations are expected to resume soon.

The Italian and Greek embassies also closed to the public that day, but the UK government said its embassy remained open.

The war, which reached its 1,000-day climax on Tuesday, has taken a growing international turn with the arrival of North Korean troops to aid Russia on the battlefield — a development that US officials say has prompted Biden’s shift in policy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin then lowered the limit on the use of nuclear weapons, a new doctrine announced on Tuesday allowing for a possible nuclear response by Moscow and even a conventional attack on Russia by any nuclear-backed nation.

That could include a US-backed invasion of Ukraine.

Western leaders dismissed the Russian move as an attempt to prevent Ukraine’s allies from providing more support to Kyiv, but tensions rose on stock markets after Ukraine used US-built ATACMS cruise missiles for the first time to hit a target inside Russia.

Western and Ukrainian officials say Russia has been stockpiling powerful long-range missiles, possibly in an upcoming attempt to knock out Ukraine’s power grid as winter approaches.

Military analysts say the US decision on the range that US missiles can use is not expected to change the war, but it could help weaken Russia’s military, according to the Institute for the Study of. War, a Washington think tank.

“Ukraine’s long-term strikes against Russia’s rear-end weapons are critical to degrading Russia’s military capabilities in all theaters,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, North Korea recently handed over more weapons programs to Russia, according to South Korea. It said that North Korean soldiers are engaged in Russian naval and air forces and some of them have started to fight the Russians on the front.

Ukraine struck a factory in Russia’s Belgorod region that makes military cargo planes in overnight raids, according to Andrii Kovalenko, head of the counterdisinformation branch of the Security Council of Ukraine.

He also said that Ukraine had fired missiles into Russia’s Novgorod region, near the city of Kotovo, which is 680 kilometers (420 miles) behind the Ukrainian border. He said the arsenal kept ammunition and different types of missiles.

The claims could not be independently verified.

_____

Follow the AP coverage of the battle at