Officials from Poland and Ukraine said on Sunday that Russia launched an attack on a truck near the borders of the two countries, in the latest attack targeting areas close to NATO countries, with Moscow and Kiev intensifying their long-range attacks seeking to change the course of the war.
The Polish border guards told Reuters that the Dorohoszk-Jahodin crossing stopped operating for a short period after the attack, which occurred approximately 800 meters from Poland, but the crossing then resumed operations.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it targeted infrastructure that facilitates the transfer of military shipments from Europe to western Ukraine. Ukraine depends on trade and arms shipments coming across the borders with Poland, Romania and Moldova.
During the past few weeks, Russia began targeting Ukraine's border crossings with its Western allies, as part of an escalating mutual campaign by both sides of the war to undermine the economic infrastructure, more than 4 years after the start of the Russian invasion.
India and China offer mediation
TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying in India: As Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the BRICS summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping offered to mediate a peace settlement.
Modi informed Putin last month during a summit held in Kyrgyzstan of the need to end the war, in one of several calls for peace issued by leaders of countries with strong, longstanding ties to Russia.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev last month publicly told Putin of the need to stop the conflict along the front line, which has been largely undeveloped this year.
Russia ruled this out, saying that Ukraine must withdraw from the eastern Donbass industrial region and hand it over to Moscow, which Kiev has completely rejected.
Brazil and China, two founding members of the BRICS group, called for the resumption of talks to end the war.
TASS quoted Peskov as saying that Putin briefed Modi on the situation “on the ground” in Ukraine, and that Russia did not rule out resuming trilateral talks with Ukraine and the United States in October.
Russia: Raid near Zaporizhya station
There were no signs of the hostilities abating during the night.
In the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporizhya region in southeastern Ukraine, the head of the Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom accused Kiev of bombing fuel trucks near the Zaporizhya nuclear power plant, which is the largest in Europe.
The Zaporizhya station has been under Russian control since March 2022. A Ukrainian army spokesman has not yet responded to a request for comment.
In Russia, Radmir Belyaev, the mayor of the city of Nizhnekamsk, located in the Volga River region in Tatarstan, said that Ukrainian drones bombed “civilian and industrial” targets in the city, killing at least two people and wounding others.
Belyaev did not clarify the targets that were bombed, but the city includes a major oil refinery that had previously been subjected to attacks.
The Ukrainian authorities have not yet commented on the raid that targeted Nizhnekamsk, but they said that their forces bombed another refinery in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia.
The French Permanent Mission to the United Nations expressed its regret for publishing a blog post criticizing a US vote during the General Assembly meeting, in a move expected to contribute to facilitating approval of the appointment of France's new ambassador to Washington.
The Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in Geneva, in a statement on Friday, expressed its “regret” over the post that was published on July 25 on the “X” platform, and questioned the United States’ commitment to human rights.
The mission wrote in its statement published on its website in English on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks: “France and the United States recently took different positions regarding a vote in the United Nations General Assembly. This discrepancy was limited to only one vote, and was not related to defending human rights.”
The statement added: “Public differences of opinion over a single vote do not stand in the way of close dialogue with the United States, nor do they call into question our historic alliance or our ability to work together to promote peace, stability, and prosperity, including within multilateral forums.”
This admission of error was welcomed in Washington after it suspended the procedures for appointing the new French ambassador to the United States. Because of this disagreement.
A US State Department official, who requested anonymity, told Agence France-Presse: “We took note of France’s statement, we appreciate it, and we look forward to working together to promote common values and interests.”
The US State Department froze approval of the appointment of Aurélien Le Chevalier, who was chosen by President Emmanuel Macron to be ambassador to Washington to succeed Laurent Bailey.
Le Chevalier currently holds the position of Chief of Staff of French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot. US approval to choose the French ambassador is usually a formality, but it has remained pending since the dispute erupted.
On July 24, the United States was one of 10 countries that voted in the United Nations General Assembly against extending Volker Türk’s term as head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, joining countries such as North Korea, Russia, Nicaragua, and others.
The French mission wrote on the “X” platform after Washington’s strong opposition to renewing the term of Türk, who repeatedly criticized US policies during the era of President Donald Trump: “The United States has been a beacon of human rights. "This is no longer the case."
This criticism was met with an immediate reaction from Washington, as the US ambassador withdrew from a UN Security Council meeting days later when the French ambassador took the floor, as an expression of his country’s protest against these comments. Then the US State Department obstructed the procedures for approving Le Chevalier's appointment.
The head of the Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom accused Ukraine on Sunday of targeting trucks transporting diesel fuel, killing two Russian soldiers, and of deliberately threatening the safety of the Zaporizhya nuclear plant in Ukraine, which is controlled by Russia.
Alexei Likhachev said that the attack occurred on Friday and also resulted in the injury of other Russian soldiers.
Russian forces imposed control over the Zaporizhya station, which is the largest in Europe and includes six reactors, in the first weeks of the war on Ukraine that broke out in February 2022. The two sides exchange accusations from time to time of committing acts that endanger the safety of the station and increase the risk of a nuclear accident, according to what Reuters reported.
On Friday, Ukrainian forces launched “a series of joint attacks” on fuel trucks transporting diesel to the station, Likhachev said in a statement.
He added: “The attacks occurred very close to the vicinity of the station site.”
He continued: “Two soldiers were killed, and a large number of Russian soldiers were injured, some of them seriously. “They were all participating in supporting this purely civilian mission.”
Fuel is extremely important to the station, as diesel generators provide the energy needed to cool the nuclear fuel in the reactors when the two external lines supplying electricity to the station are cut off. Both lines were disrupted for about three weeks during August and September.
Ukraine demands that Russia hand over the station and return its management to Kiev, a demand rejected by Moscow. The fuel does not currently generate any electricity.
The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency has permanently deployed a monitoring team at the station, as well as at the three other operating Ukrainian stations.
The agency has mediated several times when skirmishes occurred, and last month helped reach a temporary ceasefire in order to carry out maintenance work and restore external electricity sources.
