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

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. A Russian airstrike destroyed Slovenia’s consulate in Kharkiv in 2021, while a stray missile hit the German consulate in Kyiv in 2022, and two missile strikes 20 seconds apart and 50m from the EU embassy in the Ukrainian capital on 8 August 2025 shattered windows and knocked down ceiling tiles. But it would mark a new height of criminality if Putin hit an embassy on purpose after having publicly telegraphed his intentions in advance. Terrorist attacks on embassies and collateral damage in wartime were common in history, but “this would be unheard of in modern times,” said an EU diplomat on Wednesday, citing the post-WWII Geneva and Vienna conventions on “war crimes” and diplomatic relations. “Putin knows very well that bombing Western diplomats would be an unprecedented escalation,” a second EU diplomat said. A third EU diplomat told this website: “Should that ever happen, it would have enormous consequences”. Israel’s bombing of Iran’s consulate in Damascus in 2024 was even seen as a casus belli by Tehran. But a Russian strike on a German or Polish embassy in Kyiv would not qualify to trigger Nato’s Article V on mutual territorial defence, said former senior Nato official Jamie Shea . EU foreign service ‘managing director’ Matti Maasikas (l) with EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen (r) (Source: EU Commission ) Fly on EU wall And yet, given the gravity of the issue, a fly on the wall in Malayan’s meeting at the EU foreign service in Brussels on Tuesday, or in any of the similar meetings in Berlin, The Hague, Stockholm, and Warsaw, might not have been impressed with Europe’s pushback. “I didn’t see the readout [on Malayan], but I can tell you how these things usually go,” said an EU contact. “Malayan would have driven down the road to the foreign-service building with a notetaker, who was probably an SVR or GRU goon ,” he told EUobserver, referring to Russia’s foreign and military intelligence services.

Key points

• 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.
• A Russian airstrike destroyed Slovenia’s consulate in Kharkiv in 2021, while a stray missile hit the German consulate in Kyiv in 2022, and two missile strikes 20 seconds apart and 50m from the EU e…
• But it would mark a new height of criminality if Putin hit an embassy on purpose after having publicly telegraphed his intentions in advance.
• Terrorist attacks on embassies and collateral damage in wartime were common in history, but “this would be unheard of in modern times,” said an EU diplomat on Wednesday, citing the post-WWII Geneva…