EU weighs gravity of Russia’s threat to bomb diplomats in Kyiv

The ritual condemnation of death threats against EU diplomats in Kyiv masks concern Russia could bomb a European embassy and get away with it.

The EU foreign service summoned Russia’s top envoy to the EU in Brussels, chargé d’affaires ad interim Karen Malayan, on Tuesday (26 May) to formally complain.

The Dutch, German, Polish, and Swedish foreign ministries also called in Russian ambassadors after a rolling series of threats, issued first by foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, then foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, and deputy-security head Dmitry Medvedev, who said Moscow would “trim … the head count” of EU diplomats in Ukraine if they did not evacuate.

If Russia did hit an EU embassy in Kyiv, for instance with a high-tech Oreshnik missile, it would not be the first time it had damaged European diplomatic missions during the Ukraine war.

Pro-Russian paramilitary fighters fired a grenade launcher at the Polish consulate in the town of Lutsk in 2017, for instance.