“The United States will respond militarily to any Russian attack on its citizens or interests in Ukraine.”
That’s how the Trump administration should respond to Russian threats to target the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.
Recommended Stories
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Secretary of State Marco Rubio to evacuate U.S. diplomats from Kyiv. On Tuesday, deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov explained that Lavrov had told Rubio “that considering the scale of the upcoming actions from our side, there is a need to evacuate personnel from U.S. and other Western diplomatic institutions, as well as their citizens, from Kyiv. That was the meaning of the signal that was sent.”
This threat to Americans follows Russia’s pledge that it will devastate areas of Kyiv that it claims it has previously avoided targeting. Russian officials say this will be necessary retaliation for Friday’s Ukrainian attack on a student dormitory in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Starobilsk. While Russia claims that the attack killed more than 20 innocent people, Ukrainian officials say it targeted a Russian military drone unit. It is unclear what actually happened.
If Ukraine made a mistake, it should own up to it. Regardless, Russia’s claims of moral outrage are prima facie absurd. Russia has repeatedly and deliberately attacked Ukrainian civilian targets, including apartment buildings and even pediatric hospitals. Indeed, Russia’s hypocrisy here is quite stunning. Earlier this month, for example, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky avoided targeting an annual military parade in Moscow after Russia begged President Donald Trump to pressure Zelensky. Russia then reciprocated this Ukrainian gift by killing dozens of its civilians in drone and missile attacks on cities across the country. This speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nature. He is a profoundly anti-American former KGB officer who revels in mixing deception with thuggish threats.
Yet, while Trump has too often been inclined to trust Putin’s false protestations of seeking peace with Ukraine, the president has also been resolute when Russia has threatened America.
Facing Putin’s nuclear brinkmanship, Trump has significantly bolstered U.S. strategic deterrence activities. The Russians respect this display of strength for two reasons. First, because they know they would badly lose a nuclear war with America. Second, because nuclear resolve was largely absent under former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. The Trump administration also rightly warned Russia over its threats to NATO ally Latvia last week. Contrary to media reporting, the U.S. military footprint in Europe also remains extremely robust — I will have more on this on Thursday. And, as with his B-2 bomber overflight of Putin at the two leaders’ August 2025 summit in Alaska, Trump also recognizes Putin’s regard for raw strength.
CAPTURING RAUL CASTRO WOULD BE MORE DIFFICULT THAN CAPTURING NICOLAS MADURO
Still, Trump must now ensure Putin understands that he will not tolerate Putin’s efforts to escalate his way out of his Ukraine quagmire. Putin’s security strategy is centered on maintaining absolute control at home and taking calculated risks to expand Russian power abroad. With his forces suffering massive casualties without battlefield advances and his economy rotting, Putin is now calculating that America will blink amid his threats to U.S. diplomats and their families.
Instead, Trump should make clear that if Russia kills Americans, the forces responsible for that attack will have a big problem. Put another way, Putin must know, as Jim Mattis, Trump’s former defense secretary, once put it regarding a 2018 incident in Syria, that any Russian forces attacking Americans will be “annihilated.”
