Russia has vowed to intensify its relentless strikes against Kyiv and warned foreign diplomats and other visitors to leave the country or be exposed to “mortal danger,” while Ukraine's leader said his country will respond to the Kremlin's deadly air campaign.
"The Russian Foreign Ministry once again warns foreign nationals, including diplomatic mission staff, against staying in Ukraine or traveling to its territory,” the ministry said on October 3.
"Responsibility for any adverse consequences lies entirely with those who ignore this warning," it said, adding that "not everyone has heeded these warnings and is knowingly exposing their lives to mortal danger."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said Kyiv's intelligence services had obtained documents showing that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had issued a "new doctrine" of military attacks on a broader range of civilian targets ahead of the impending bitter winter months.
"We saw documents and we know that they allow them to attack infrastructure, logistics, and especially to attack in the cities, in the villages, everywhere, roads, schools, hospitals," Zelenskyy said in an interview with Reuters.
"To pressure people to leave the capital, leave different cities: This is the goal of the operation."
Zelenskyy said his forces would not target civilian infrastructure.
"We have to respond in any way [we can]. With their attacks on our energy, we have to respond on their energy. First of all, oil refiners etc.: what gives money to them for this war," Zelenskyy, speaking in English, told the news agency.
"But we will not respond...like [they do]on any civilian objects," he added.
Moscow Intensifies Air Campaign
Russia has escalated strikes on infrastructure in the Ukrainian capital and other cities as the winter months approach. In an attack on October 3, the Kremlin forces struck a bridge across the Dnipro River.
Dozens of people have been killed and injured in the capital and widespread damages have been results from recent attacks.
Putin said Ukraine was paying the price for its strikes on Russia that Moscow’s forces would continue its campaign to punish Kyiv.
Ukraine has also stepped up its attacks inside Russia, targeting oil refineries and related facilities that Kyiv says are used to fuel the all-out war against Ukraine, which has intensified following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Many nations have issued warnings against travel to Ukraine but have also maintained diplomatic outposts inside the war-torn country.
Outside the capital, Russia said it hit a cargo ship in Ukraine's port of Odesa. The Ukrainian sea ports administration said Russia had attacked a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the region, killing one person and injuring three.
Moldova Condemns Russia
Elsewhere, Moldova summoned the Russian ambassador after what it said were the latest incursions by drones and missiles into its airspace spilling over from the war.
Pro-West President Maia Sandu said the incident -- and a similar one earlier in the week -- showed that Russia's war in Ukraine was "reaching Moldova."
"Moscow is putting lives at risk across Europe and must be stopped," she wrote on X.
"I condemn Russia's attack on Ukraine this morning. Its war is dangerously reaching Moldova. 5 Russian air attack weapons, including Banderol missiles and drones, violated our airspace and exploded on our soil," she said.
