The U.S. embassy in Moscow issued a security alert to American citizens in the Russian capital on Sunday after learning of what it described as a credible threat of a terrorist event that could cause many deaths at the Tsaritsyno park and palace complex, Corriere della Sera reports. The embassy said the U.S. government was coordinating its response with the relevant Russian authorities.
The warning came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Istanbul, and as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters he did not know whether a negotiated peace in Ukraine could be reached.
Why it matters
The alert places a public warning from Washington directly onto the streets of the Russian capital, a rare step that signals concern about an attack on a civilian site. It also lands at a moment when diplomatic activity is intensifying but producing little visible movement toward talks. Rubio, speaking at a press conference, said the United States was still trying to establish whether a settlement is achievable, adding that he did not believe anyone in the room would claim a negotiated solution was imminent.
Tsaritsyno closed and cordoned
According to Corriere della Sera, citing Russian state agencies Tass and Ria Novosti, the Tsaritsyno museum-reserve was temporarily shut after the U.S. warning. The site, in southern Moscow, is a large landscaped park built around an ornate palace that holds collections of 20th-century Soviet decorative art, traditional Slavic crafts, Russian jewellery from the 16th to the 20th centuries, archaeological finds and sculpture.
Independent accounts circulating on X, cited in the same reporting, said visitors were quickly evacuated and that security staff attributed the closure to technical reasons without elaborating. One guard was quoted as saying staff had simply been told to close the park on technical grounds. Dozens of police officers cordoned off the green area, dog units were deployed and access roads to the gardens were shut, according to those accounts. Videos on X showed police cars with flashing lights watching over the gates as visitors walked away. The same outlets said the museum would stay closed for at least two days.
Drones over Nizhny Novgorod and Kyiv
Overnight and into Sunday morning, Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, east of Moscow, came under what its governor, Gleb Nikitin, called a massive drone attack, with more than one hundred aircraft destroyed, according to Corriere della Sera. Nikitin said preliminary information indicated no casualties, but that an industrial facility in the Kstovo district had suffered serious damage. He did not specify what the plant produces. Ukraine said it had struck a major oil refinery.
In Kyiv, Russian drones came down in the Darnytskyi, Desnianskyi and Obolonskyi districts, Ukraine's Ukrinform news agency reported, citing the city's military administration. One drone landed in an open area in Darnytskyi, according to the administration, and a fire broke out in a non-residential area involving parked vehicles. Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said a blaze started in a car park near the main entrance of a market in Desnianskyi and was quickly put out. Debris fell inside a shopping centre in Obolonskyi, injuring a 12-year-old girl.
Separately, Italy's Deputy Foreign Minister Fazzolari expressed solidarity with Ukraine over what ANSA described as a Russian terrorist attack on Dnipro, and Tv2000 reported fresh strikes on Kyiv on the final day of a mission by the Pope's almoner.
Missiles, grain and the Black Sea
Speaking to Ukrainian media in Istanbul, Zelensky outlined a plan to ask individual partners to lend Ukraine between 10 and 30 air-defence missiles on the understanding that they would be returned once an American package of 500 PAC-3 interceptors arrives, Corriere della Sera reports. He argued the arrangement would give Ukraine some protection from partners' stocks before U.S. deliveries land. Zelensky said the American supply had been pushed back by several years because of production constraints and Washington's slow willingness to share missiles from its own inventory, and that the pace would not provide Ukrainians with sufficient protection. He also noted that a significant share of air-defence packages is currently directed to the Middle East.
At a joint press conference with Erdogan, Zelensky said the two had agreed to work on creating a new grain corridor in the Black Sea, according to Anadolu. He said Turkey supports efforts to ensure safe navigation there and to restore normal living conditions. In a social media post before the talks, Zelensky said the visit was aimed at strengthening protection for Ukrainian citizens, the partnership with Turkey and concrete diplomatic prospects, with important questions around Black Sea shipping.
Il Foglio, in its coverage of the war, described Russian President Vladimir Putin as continuing to batter Ukraine while seeking a renewed say in the architecture of European security.
What to watch: whether the Tsaritsyno closure is lifted after the stated two days, whether any partner agrees to the temporary missile arrangement Zelensky described, and whether Washington's assessment of a negotiated path shifts after Rubio's remarks.
