Western countries could strike Russia if Moscow attacks their embassies in Ukraine

Christian Marxsen, one of the world's leading experts on the right to self-defense in the event of an armed attack and a researcher at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, told Forbes that if the embassies of Ukraine's allied countries, both EU members and nonmembers, become targets of further Russian bombing, those countries could have grounds under the UN Charter to retaliate with missile and drone strikes on Russian territory.

"Article 51 of the UN Charter emphasizes the 'inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations,'" Marxsen said.

The expert noted that the provision was invoked nearly half a century ago during the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

"Although Russia's militaristic leaders, headed by dictator Putin, may be counting on an airstrike against one or more European embassies in Ukraine not triggering retaliatory defensive strikes, especially if the United States adopts an isolationist position in this conflict, history shows that a weak response to an armed attack on a diplomatic mission can have devastating consequences that shape the future and spread across the entire region," Forbes wrote.

According to the publication, European diplomats working in Ukraine view Russia's threat to launch massive airstrikes across the country, along with its warning to leave Ukrainian territory, as a thinly veiled threat to kill them.

Meanwhile, Marxsen told Forbes that after carefully examining international law, particularly the UN Charter, many prominent experts had agreed that "embassies are potential targets of attacks that could trigger the right to self-defense."

"However, it must be taken into account that armed attacks must constitute sufficiently grave violations of the prohibition on the use of force. The consequences must be assessed in light of the damage caused by the attack, particularly the number of casualties and the extent of significant property destruction or environmental damage resulting from the use of force," he concluded.

On Oct. 2, The Guardian reported that Western diplomats were privately discussing plans to relocate their embassies to Lviv or eastern Poland amid intensifying Russian strikes on Kyiv.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi denied rumors about embassy relocations in a comment to NV. He said the ministry had received no such requests or notifications from foreign diplomatic missions.

On Oct. 3, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Russian forces would continue launching massive strikes on Ukraine, including Kyiv, and warned that staying in the city could pose a "mortal danger" to foreign nationals.

On Oct. 5, the embassies of Italy, Spain, Sweden and Germany in Ukraine announced that they would remain in Kyiv despite threats from Russia.

"Together with other heads of diplomatic missions in Kyiv, we note with concern the Russian Foreign Ministry's threats against diplomats and foreign nationals in Ukraine. Russia is obliged to comply with the Vienna Convention and international humanitarian law. We remain in Kyiv," the embassies said in their statements.

Shortly before that, EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová issued a similar statement.