Ukrainian capital Kyiv, other regions under air raid alert amid missile threat

Ukrainian capital Kyiv, other regions under air raid alert amid missile threat

An air raid alert was declared in the Ukrainian capital and several other regions on November 20 amid what Kyiv's air force described as a missile threat.

The alert, which the head of Ukraine's presidential administration urged citizens not to ignore, came just hours after the US State Department closed its Kyiv embassy due to "specific information of a potential significant air attack".

Ukraine's military intelligence agency said Russia staged massive psychological operation against Ukraine, adding that the operation involved mass distribution of fake messages about massive looming missile strike.

"This message is a fake, it contains grammatical errors typical of Russian information and psychological operations."

The United States told its citizens in Ukraine to be ready to swiftly seek shelter.

The Italian and Greek embassies said they had also closed their doors after the unusual U.S. warning.

On November 19, Ukraine used U.S. ATACMS missiles to attack an arms depot inside Russia, making use of newly granted permission from the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden on the 1,000th day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has been signalling to the United States and its allies for weeks that if they give permission to Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with Western-supplied missiles, then Moscow will consider it a major escalation.

With inputs from Reuters