The United States on Thursday reiterated that its diplomats remained in Kyiv despite Russia’s escalating threats, dismissing a suggestion from the European Union’s top diplomat that Washington had evacuated the Ukrainian capital.
The restated American commitment to the city came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote a rare letter, appealing to President Donald Trump and Congress for more air defenses.
Russia had urged foreign diplomats to evacuate Kyiv earlier this week, vowing further “systematic” strikes following one of the most intense bombardments on the capital since the start of the war in 2022.
The new threat from Moscow raised fears in the city. Ukraine’s European allies refused to leave, and the State Department told NBC News earlier this week there was no change to the U.S. presence in Kyiv.
But on Thursday, the E.U. foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, suggested otherwise.
“What we heard from Ukraine yesterday was that all the embassies stayed, except one, so that also takes courage from those embassies, but yes, all the European stayed, America left,” she told reporters ahead of a foreign ministers meeting in Cyprus.
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv issued a swift response denying this and confirming that it was also staying put. “There are no changes to our operations and reports otherwise are false,” it said in a post on X.
Ukraine also denied that American diplomats had evacuated the capital.
The official transcript of Kallas’ comments was subsequently amended to remove the suggestion Americans had left the city. A note said it was “updated with a correction with regard to the diplomatic presence in Kyiv.” Kallas’ spokesperson Anitta Hipper told NBC News that “this was a misunderstanding. See the correction posted.”
Zelenskyy sends letter to Trump and Congress
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy wrote to Trump and Congress asking for more American-made air defense ammunition.
“It is quite rare for the leader of another state to address both the president and Congress of the United States simultaneously with a letter,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. “But the situation now requires action, swift and effective action. It is important that America hear Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian leader urged Trump and Congress in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, to supply more Patriot PAC-3 missiles and other air defense systems, warning that deliveries to Ukraine were falling dangerously short as the Iran war diverts U.S. stocks.
Ukraine has pounded Russian targets, especially oil facilities and manufacturing plants, with its domestically produced drones in recent months.
At the same time, the Russian military has intensified its aerial attacks, firing almost 90 missiles, as well as hundreds of drones, at Kyiv last weekend in an effort to overwhelm air defenses.
Ukraine has raised its drone interception rate to more than 90%, the letter says, and Ukrainian specialists have helped countries in the Middle East — specifically the Gulf Arab region — strengthen air defenses. They have also helped at American military bases in the Mideast, the letter says.
But Ukraine cannot yet produce its own antimissile defense systems, Zelenskyy said, and for that relies “almost exclusively on the United States.”
“For us — for a nation fighting for its survival — there is hardly anything more painful to see than Patriot batteries with no missiles loaded,” Zelenskyy wrote.
Deliveries, he said, are “no longer keeping up with the reality of the threat we face.”
There was no immediate comment on the letter from the U.S. Zelenskyy said the letter was delivered to institutions in Washington on Tuesday.
“The sooner we are able to provide greater protection against ballistic threats, the sooner we will be able to make diplomacy work,” Zelenskyy added in Wednesday night’s address. “As long as Russia continues to rely on missiles, its interest in diplomacy is not real.”
The steps came after a recent escalation in aerial attacks by both sides in the more than four-year war that followed Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor. Neither side has been able to make much progress on the 780-mile front line.
Also Wednesday, Anne Keast-Butler, head of the British intelligence agency GCHQ, asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is going backwards on the battlefield.” New data shows that “almost half a million Russian soldiers have now been killed since the conflict began,” she added.
