Poland, Ukraine accuse Russia of ‘escalation’ after strikes near border

Poland and Ukraine have accused Russia of “escalation” following Russian strikes on a train close to the two countries’ border.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ex-US CIA director David Petraeus were at a border train station nearby around the time the train was hit, Ukraine’s rail operator said Sunday.

Poland and Ukraine said a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train was struck just two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the Polish border, but there were no reported casualties.

That attack took place while a diplomatic train containing Johnson and “security advisers from several EU member states and former European leaders”, as well as another train with Petraeus on board, were at Yagodyn station.

The operator did not say how far the officials were from the train that was attacked.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow had “deliberately” struck the locomotive.

Ukraine’s border crossings with Poland are a conduit for much of the military and humanitarian aid sent by Western allies.

Poland warns of escalation

“The escalation of actions by the Russian Federation is becoming a fact, and its examples are increasingly close to our border,” Polish President Donald Tusk said on X following a security meeting on Sunday.

Tusk warned of the danger of increasing use by Russia of jet-powered long-range strike drones, which are significantly faster and harder to intercept than earlier propeller-powered craft.

Speaking in Kyiv Sunday, Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the “escalation” should lead allies to “double” their support for Ukraine.

“This was just a few hundred meters from the Polish border; this affects the safety of my countrymen,” Sikorski said.

Russian missiles and drones have previously fallen in Polish territory, including one incident in 2022 when a Russian missile exploded in the Polish village Przewodow, killing two people.

In a post on X on Sunday, Johnson said he did not know what “warped logic” drove the “random and senseless” attack on the locomotive, and he hailed the bravery of the Ukrainian rail staff.

Ukraine strikes bite Russian energy industry

On Sunday, United States President Donald Trump urged Ukraine to ease off its long-range strike campaign on Russian oil infrastructure, blaming the attacks for diesel passing $6 a gallon ($1.59 per litre) in the US.

Ukraine has for months been targeting Russia’s oil and gas industry with long-range strikes, prompting fuel rationing and long queues at petrol stations across the country.

In response, Moscow banned diesel exports in July, removing supplies from the already tight global market.

“Mr Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the Irish Open golf tournament.

Kyiv says Russia’s oil industry both funds and directly fuels Moscow’s more than four-year-old invasion of Ukraine.