US shuts Kyiv embassy due to 'potential significant air attack'

The United States shut its embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday morning due to "specific information of a potential significant air attack" amid jitters in the capital over possible Russian retaliation a day after a big Ukrainian strike.

The Italian and Greek embassies said they had also closed their doors after the unusual U.S. warning, while the French embassy remained open but urged its citizens to be cautious.

Air raid sirens briefly sounded in Kyiv in the afternoon, as the air force told people to seek shelter because of a missile threat. Senior officials told Ukrainians not to ignore the alert.

Ukraine on Tuesday used U.S. ATACMS missiles to attack an arms depot inside Russia, making use of newly granted permission from the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden on the 1,000th day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has been signalling to the United States and its allies for weeks that if they give permission to Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with Western-supplied missiles then Moscow will consider it a major escalation.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the embassy will be closed, and embassy employees are being instructed to shelter in place," the U.S. Department of State Consular Affairs said in a statement on the embassy's website.