‘If you don’t shower, so what?’ The western diplomats staying put in under-attack Kyiv

Ambassadors say presence sends powerful signal of solidarity and support amid escalation in Russian strikes and warnings

The warning from Moscow was blunt. Western diplomats should immediately leave the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. If they failed to do so they would be “in mortal danger”. The statement added that Russia would not responsible for any “potential negative consequences” if its advice was ignored.

European envoys in Kyiv responded to the Kremlin’s threat last month with a loud raspberry. Denmark’s ambassador to Ukraine, Thomas Lund-Sørensen, took to social media to say that he was staying. So did the ambassadors from Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, France, Poland and Estonia. Even the Americans indicated they would not be budging.

Speaking at his embassy office, decorated with a Lego Cossack warrior, Lund-Sørensen said the Russians were trying to spook Europeans in order to undermine support for Ukraine. “It’s cognitive warfare. These attacks have been going on for a long time. They are trying to influence public opinion in my country. Of course we will continue here,” he said.

The ambassador admitted that his job had scary moments, shared by all in Kyiv. “If you don’t find it frightening when 10 ballistic missiles hit within a couple of minutes you should probably go and see someone,” he said, but added: “There is a difference between being in uncomfortable and life-threatening situations. If you don’t shower, so what?”

The decision to remain in a city under fire is not without risk. On Friday, a drone crashed into a hospital in central Kyiv, the institute for orthopaedics and traumatology, a few hundred metres from Lund-Sørensen’s workplace. The bang could be heard for miles around.

Russia has dramatically stepped up its attacks since August, hurling missiles and hundreds of jet-powered drones. Major urban centres such as Kharkiv and Odesa have suffered too. Seemingly frustrated by failure to progress on the battlefield, the Kremlin has intensified its all-out campaign against civilians.

It has targeted bridges across the Dnipro river, thermal heating plants and substations, as well as trains and railway stations. Power cuts last most of the day. In the past week, there was no water for 24 hours. The bombing has reached the historic centre of Kyiv, where many embassies are located. In October the German consulate was damaged in an attack that killed eight people.

In 2025, two missiles landed in the car park next to the EU delegation building. Deadly metal cubes perforated its ground floor, shattering armoured windows. The strike was at dawn, before staff arrived. Nobody was hurt. This September, a drone exploded 500 metres away. Debris ravaged the ninth-floor, bringing down glass, ceiling panels, and the ventilation system.

“I was in a meeting with seven colleagues. We ran to the corridor,” Katarína Mathernová, the EU’s ambassador in Kyiv, said. “I’ve never heard anything that loud in my life. There were plumes of smoke. It was shocking.” The delegation is now reinforcing its outer walls with sandbags. It has put beanbags in corridors, for staff to use during air raids. There are foldable beds and extra showers.

Asked whether the Kremlin wanted to murder diplomats, as opposed to merely scaring them a little, Mathernová replied with a quote from Catch 22, Joseph Heller’s famous satirical novel. “As Yossarian says: ‘They are trying to kill me! They are lobbying bombs at us!’ I think they are warning shots. They [the Russians] are more and more brazen and callous.”

Vladimir Putin’s strategic goal, she added, was to destroy the EU. She described Russia’s latest threat as “intimidation”, made in the hope that some diplomats from the global south might abandon Kyiv. Meanwhile, the city was creaking. “The level of attacks are much higher than last year, and the power cuts earlier. We’ve had no water in our building. The soft underbelly of a modern city is it’s sewage system,” she noted.

As the capital braces for winter, ambassadors say their continued presence sends a powerful signal of solidarity to Ukraine’s embattled leadership. “They tell us thank you for being here,” Lund-Sørensen said. A fellow ambassador added: “We would all like to stay. We feel conscious that our presence is politically and psychologically important for Ukraine and its resilience.”

The envoy said that in his view the Russians were not hitting foreign missions “by design”. He thought, however, that “sooner or later” a diplomat would be killed by a drone “falling in the wrong place” – an act that would plunge that country’s government into crisis, as it mulled how to respond to Putin’s violence and disregard for international law.

For visiting prime ministers and presidents, getting to and from Kyiv has become more dangerous. The capital’s airport has been shut since the 2022 invasion. Train or car are the only options. On a recent journey from Poland, the envoy said he had to leave his rail compartment twice because of marauding drones. “I sat in the woods for one and a half hours. The train staff gave me a biscuit,” he said.

Frequent air alerts and attacks on bridges have disrupted embassy business and made it difficult for local Ukrainian staff to get to work, he added. The envoy acknowledged: “I have a privileged existence. An alarm goes off and I go and sleep in the basement. Ukrainians have adapted their security protocols. But it’s more inconvenient. There’s a degree of nervousness.”

Mathernová said she sleeps on a mattress in the bathroom of her hotel suite during Russian strikes. She pointed out that millions of Ukrainians are forced to do the same thing – kipping down in bomb shelters, corridors and on the cold floors of metro stations. “There is nothing funny about using winter as a weapon of mass destruction,” she posted earlier this year, after a Kremlin official mocked a photo of her in pyjamas.

Kyiv is classified as a hardship role. Western ambassadors typically stay for two years, separated from families. Lund-Sørensen said there was not exactly “a queue” of colleagues wanting to work in Ukraine but enough “right people” volunteered. “It’s really hard to imagine as a diplomat a more meaningful posting than Ukraine. Its struggle against Russia is personal to me and my country,” he said.

At weekends the envoy relaxes by going on long cycle rides. Mathernová said she enjoyed Nordic walking in the botanical gardens, as well as saunas and dinners with friends. “Kyiv has an unbelievable array of amazing restaurants. One of the things I will miss most is its culinary scene. And it’s can-do attitude. Everything is possible. It’s a big contrast with Brussels,” she said.

*Luke Harding’s Betrayal: Trump, Putin and the New Age of Conquest is published by Guardian Faber. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com Delivery charges may apply