The US embassy in Kiev has been closed due to the threat of a Russian airstrike

Kyiv, Ukraine – The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said Wednesday it would remain closed after receiving a warning of a potentially significant Russian airstrike on the Ukrainian capital.

The precaution came after Russian officials promised a response to President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine attack targets on Russian territory with US-made missiles – a move that angered the Kremlin.

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin subsequently lowered the threshold for using its nuclear arsenal, with the new doctrine announced on Tuesday allowing for a potential nuclear response from Moscow even to a conventional attack on Russia by any country backed by a nuclear force .

That could potentially include U.S.-backed Ukrainian attacks.

Western leaders dismissed the Russian move as an attempt to deter Ukraine’s allies from providing further support to Kiev, but escalating tension weighed on stock markets after Ukraine used extended-range US ATACMS missiles for the first time to launch a strike. to hit a target in Russia.

The US Embassy said the shutdown and strike warning was issued in the context of ongoing Russian missile and drone attacks on Kiev and anticipated a quick return to regular operations.

Ukraine’s 65th Mechanized Brigade / AP / Ukraine’s 65th Mechanized Brigade

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The 65th Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine

Western and Ukrainian officials say Russia has stockpiled powerful long-range missiles, possibly in an impending attempt to crush Ukraine’s power grid as winter sets in.

Military analysts say the U.S. decision on the range at which U.S. missiles can be used is not expected to be a game-changer in the war, but it could help weaken Russia’s war effort, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank.

“Ukrainian long-range strikes against military objects within the Russian rear are crucial for degrading Russian military capabilities across the theater,” the report said.

Meanwhile, North Korea recently delivered additional artillery systems to Russia, according to South Korea. It said that North Korean soldiers had been assigned to the Russian naval and airborne units and that some of them have already begun fighting on the front lines alongside the Russians.

Ukraine struck a factory in Russia’s Belgorod region that makes cargo drones for the armed forces in an overnight attack, said Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian Security Council’s counter-disinformation department.

He also claimed that Ukraine had struck an arsenal in Russia’s Novgorod region, near the city of Kotovo, about 680 kilometers (420 miles) behind the Ukrainian border. The arsenal contained artillery ammunition and several types of rockets, he said.

It was not possible to independently verify the claims.

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