Poland urges 'doubling' of support for Ukraine after Russian strike near border train station
Russia struck a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train just 2km from the Polish border, near a station where former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and ex-CIA director David Petraeus were present. Poland called it an escalation and urged allies to double support for Ukraine.
Russian forces struck a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train only 2 kilometres from the Polish border, an attack that Poland and Ukraine have jointly described as an escalation of the war. No casualties were reported.
Shortly before the strike, a diplomatic train carrying former British prime minister Boris Johnson and security advisers from several EU member states had been at Yagodyn station, while former CIA director David Petraeus was aboard another train at the same station. Ukrainian rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said Johnson and Petraeus may have been the intended target.
Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, speaking in Kyiv, said the strike landed just a few hundred metres from the Polish border and affected the safety of his countrymen, calling on allies to double their support for Ukraine. Polish prime minister Donald Tusk convened an emergency meeting in Warsaw, warning he expects Russia to escalate the war in the coming weeks and that Polish territory could not be ruled out as a future target.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow had deliberately struck the train's locomotive, saying Ukrainian soldiers fight daily to prevent the aggression from spreading further into Europe. Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha described the attack as Putin's terror knocking directly on the doors of the EU and Nato.
Diplomatic developments
On the diplomatic front, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said talks between Ukraine and the US could take place in October. Zelenskyy said he would be willing to meet Putin at the G20 summit in Miami in December, but Peskov called that impossible, repeating Moscow's demand that any meeting take place in Moscow.
US president Donald Trump urged Zelenskyy to stop striking Russian oil infrastructure, saying the attacks were causing a global diesel shortage and price spike. The International Energy Agency reported that disruptions to Russia's refining system have significantly cut exports.
Zelenskyy imposed sanctions on former press secretary Yuliia Mendel and nine others, accusing them of spreading Russian propaganda. Mendel responded that sanctions against Ukrainian citizens are unconstitutional.
