By Anastasiia Malenko and Tom Balmforth

KYIV (Reuters) – The USA shut its embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday resulting from “specific information of a potential significant air attack” and informed its residents in Ukraine to be able to swiftly search shelter.

The bizarre warning got here a day after Ukraine used U.S. ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory, benefiting from newly granted permission from the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden on the battle’s 1,000th day.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the embassy will be closed, and embassy employees are being instructed to shelter in place,” the U.S. Division of State Consular Affairs stated in an announcement on the U.S. embassy’s web site.

“The U.S. Embassy recommends U.S. citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced.”

Russia pounded the Ukrainian energy grid with 120 missiles and 90 drones on Sunday, inflicting injury to the facility system and killing seven folks in an assault that renewed fears over the sturdiness of the hobbled vitality community.

The embassy in Kyiv urged U.S. residents in Ukraine to have reserves of water, meals and different necessities akin to required medicines for the occasion of a “possible temporary loss of electricity and water” brought on by Russian strikes.

“Persistent Russian attacks targeting civilian infrastructure throughout Ukraine may result in power outages, loss of heating, and disruption of municipal services,” it stated.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian Safety Council’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, stated Russia was able to conduct extra airstrikes, as he commented on the U.S. assertion.

“Let me remind you that the Russians have been stockpiling missiles for a series of attacks on Ukraine for months. This includes Kh-101 missiles, which they continue to produce, as well as Kalibrs and ballistics,” he stated.

Russia had been warning the West for months that if Washington allowed Ukraine to fireside U.S., British and French missiles deep into Russia, Moscow would take into account these NATO members to be immediately concerned within the battle in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated in October that Moscow was engaged on alternative ways to reply if Washington accepted Ukrainian strikes with U.S.-made weapons deep into Russia.

On Tuesday, Putin lowered the brink for a nuclear strike in response to a broader vary of standard assaults, with nuclear dangers rising amid the best tensions between Russia and West in additional than half a century.