“Every time you see these big strikes from one side or the other, it’s a reminder of why this is a terrible war that’s now gone on longer than the Second World War, and it needs to come to an end,” Rubio said after holding a phone call with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

While speaking with reporters during an official visit to India Rubio said “the US stands ready and prepared to help do whatever we can to help facilitate the end of this war, and hopefully the opportunity will present itself at some point”.

Russia said on Monday that it planned to launch more strikes on Kyiv, including on its “decision-making centres”, having already launched scores of drones and missiles at Ukraine over the weekend, killing four people.

On his call with Rubio, Lavrov urged the United States to evacuate diplomats from its embassy in Kyiv, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

Rubio told reporters that Russia had “sent a notice to all the embassies”, not just the US one.