MOSCOW, May 26, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Russia's call for diplomats and foreigners to leave Kyiv over the threat of fresh strikes drew a sharp backlash from Western countries on Tuesday, some of whom accused Moscow of escalating the more than four-year war. Russia announced Monday it had started a campaign of "systematic" strikes on Kyiv, after battering Ukraine with hundreds of drones and a hypersonic missile over the weekend. It said the strikes would target the Ukrainian capital's "decision-making centres" and urged foreign citizens and diplomats "to leave the city as soon as possible", as well as for Kyiv residents to avoid public buildings. Ukraine called the threats "blackmail" and encouraged its allies to ignore the warning, while several Western diplomatic missions announced they had no plans to evacuate their staff. Almost 50 countries condemned what they said were threats by Russia against embassies in Ukraine in a joint statement at the United Nations on Tuesday. "We also condemn recent threats by Russia to diplomatic institutions and embassies in Kyiv. This is something which we cannot accept," the joint statement delivered by Ukrainian UN representative Andriy Melnyk said. The statement was signed by European countries, Japan, South Korea and others. The European Union also lashed out at Russia's threat, saying it had no plans to move its staff, while Germany and Norway summoned Russia's ambassador over the move. A spokesperson for France's foreign ministry said Monday that evacuating diplomatic staff from Kyiv was "out of the question." Russia's threat came after weeks of escalating strikes between the two sides, and as US-led talks aimed at ending the conflict remained largely frozen over the Iran war. Russia last week accused Ukraine of hitting a vocational school in the Russian-occupied Lugansk region, killing 21 people, while a massive attack on Ukraine's capital the week before killed 24, according to Ukrainian authorities. Both sides deny targeting civilians. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington remained ready to mediate in the conflict. "Every time you see these big strikes from one side or the other, it's a reminder of why this is a terrible war that's now gone on longer than the Second World War, and it needs to come to an end," Rubio told reporters during an official visit to India. He was referring to the length of WWII for Moscow, which entered the war in June 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded the USSR, with the conflict ending in May 1945 with Germany's surrender. - Drone threats - Both Russia and Ukraine exchanged strikes on Tuesday. A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person in Russia's Belgorod border region, local authorities said, while Russian strikes on Ukraine left several wounded, according to Ukrainian officials. Drones have also routinely crossed the airspace of the three Baltic nations, incidents that have forced citizens to seek shelter and prompted NATO to scramble jets. The drones are thought to be of Ukrainian origin but are sometimes deflected into the Baltics by electronic jamming, according to European and Ukrainian officials. Russia has accused the Baltics of offering their airspace as a springboard for attacks on Russia, an accusation that NATO and Ukraine deny. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday that Russia bore ultimate responsibility for the incidents. "People in the Baltic countries have been experiencing what many believed belonged to another era," von der Leyen said, standing alongside the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. "Air raid alerts, families sheltering, schools closing, transport interrupted. This is the reality on Europe's eastern border in 2026," she said. "These are not isolated incidents. This is a deliberate strategy from Russia, trying to destabilise our democratic societies." Since Russia launched its full-scale offensive in 2022, hundreds of thousands of people have died, millions have been forced to flee their homes and parts of eastern and southern Ukraine have been decimated by fighting. Russia currently occupies around a fifth of Ukraine: the entirety of the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, most of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk -- collectively referred to as the Donbas -- and large parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. The conflict has spiralled into Europe's deadliest since World War II.