EU Summons Russian Envoy as Moscow Threatens Diplomats in Kyiv

The European Union's External Action Service summoned Russia's chargé d'affaires to the EU, Karen Malayan, on May 27, 2026, after the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a public notice urging foreign citizens and diplomats to evacuate Kyiv ahead of renewed missile strikes ^[1][2]. The summons, confirmed by European Commission foreign affairs spokesperson Anitta Hipper, conveyed three demands: that Russia halt attacks on civilians, engage in genuine peace talks, and accept a full and unconditional ceasefire ^[3][5]. Russia has not indicated it will comply with any of those terms.

The immediate trigger was a large-scale Russian strike on Kyiv on the night of May 23 into May 24. Russian forces launched a combined missile and drone attack on May 24, targeting mainly Kyiv and the surrounding region, with Ukraine's Air Force reporting 90 missiles and 600 drones in an attack it described as one of the largest in the past year. At least four people were killed and 83 injured across Ukraine in the assault, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia confirmed it had used an Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile in the overnight strikes, marking the third use of the nuclear-capable weapon in the four-year war. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha reported that, for the first time since World War II, the Foreign Ministry building sustained damage; the Cabinet of Ministers building was also struck. Russia's Defense Ministry described the strikes as a response to alleged Ukrainian attacks on civilian facilities in Russian territory and stated that all designated targets were hit [16-21,16-22,16-23]. Russia cited, in particular, a Ukrainian drone strike on a college dormitory in Starobilsk in Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast, which Moscow said killed at least 21 people [15-9,15-10]. Ukraine denied targeting civilians, saying it had struck a Russian Rubicon drone unit stationed in the Starobilsk area.

Following the May 24 attack, Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a formal notice urging all foreign nationals, including diplomatic personnel and staff of international organizations, to depart Kyiv as soon as possible, and advised local residents to avoid military and administrative facilities in the capital [4-6]. Shortly after the warning, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a phone call that Washington should evacuate diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, according to the Kremlin. Lavrov informed Washington that Moscow intended to strike sites in Kyiv which Russia claims are linked to Ukraine's armed forces and military command structures. The notice drew immediate condemnation from Brussels and multiple European capitals as a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which prohibits the threat or use of force against the persons of diplomatic agents. Belgian Foreign Minister Maxim Prevot called the maneuver a "flagrant violation of international law and the Vienna Convention." The Polish Foreign Ministry warned that any strike on its diplomatic missions would be "considered deliberate and intentional."

The EU and its member states responded in force. Germany, France, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Estonia, and the European Commission each summoned Russian ambassadors to convey their objections after the Kremlin's public notice. Norway also summoned Russian Ambassador Nikolay Viktorovich Korchunov, with Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide stating that the summons protested "the threats against foreign personnel in Ukraine made by Russia in recent days." Despite the warnings from Moscow, EU missions in Kyiv did not evacuate. EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová reinforced the bloc's position, stating that the EU delegation was "not going anywhere." Ukraine's Foreign Minister Sybiha dismissed Moscow's warnings as "shameless blackmail," saying the threats would not intimidate Western diplomats operating in the capital.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia's Security Council and a former Russian president and prime minister, sharpened the rhetoric further. Medvedev posted on social media that the EU had said it would maintain its diplomatic presence in Kyiv unchanged and commented, "apparently they've got diplomats to spare and need to trim the headcount." The statement drew no formal legal response from EU institutions, though it placed Medvedev's remarks squarely within the framework of conduct that the Vienna Convention treats as a host-state obligation to protect, not threaten, accredited diplomats. Medvedev's comments are consistent with a pattern of escalatory signaling from senior Russian officials that has punctuated the conflict since 2022.

The episode lands at a delicate juncture in the broader diplomatic arc. With U.S.-led talks to end the conflict making little progress and the war now in its fifth year, some European officials have said the EU should be ready for when the time comes to hold talks with Moscow directly. Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to insert himself into that debate, announcing through the RIA Novosti state news agency that he is open to negotiations with Europe. EU foreign ministers were scheduled to hold an informal meeting in Cyprus to discuss ways to increase international pressure on Russia and consider the terms of any potential engagement. The European Commission, for its part, stated that "Russia is absolutely not interested in any peace." That framing, coming alongside the diplomatic summons in Brussels, suggests that Europe's immediate policy response will center on pressure and condemnation rather than any near-term resumption of substantive talks with Moscow.