Russia attacks a Ukrainian passenger train on the border with Poland and targets Western diplomats

On Sunday, the Russian army attacked a passenger train in a Ukrainian region located on the border with Poland using a combat drone, while the Ukrainian railway company later suggested that Western diplomats and former politicians were the target.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said during the crisis team meeting held after the incident: “Escalation from the Russian side has now become a reality, and examples of this are getting closer than ever to our borders.”

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in a post on the “X” platform: “Putin is rising.”

The Ukrainian Railways Company reported that the locomotive of the passenger train heading from Kiev to Warsaw was attacked on Sunday at the Yahudin border station, and indicated that the passengers were evacuated in a timely manner, and no one was injured. Western politicians heading to Kiev also rely on the railway linking Poland to Ukraine, given the closure of Ukrainian airspace.

Ukrainian Railways: The train of diplomats was near

The Ukrainian railway company said on Sunday evening that a train carrying diplomats had stopped at Yahudin station shortly before the attack, carrying, among others, security advisers from several European Union countries and former prominent European politicians, including Boris Johnson, who was prime minister of the United Kingdom in February 2022, when Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine. The group had participated in a conference held in Kyiv the previous day.

It was reported that another train was parked at the station at the time of the attack, reportedly carrying former CIA Director David Petraeus.

The railway company stated in a post on the Telegram platform: “It is quite possible that the diplomats’ train was also the intended target of this Russian drone, as it left the station earlier than originally planned, as part of immediate adjustments to train schedules due to the continuing threat of Russian attacks.” The company said that train schedules are constantly being modified due to the war.

Boris Johnson said that the Russian attack is another example of the approach taken by Russia in this war.

Johnson said in a post on the “X” platform: “I do not know what distorted logic prompted Putin to blow up a Ukrainian locomotive parked on the Polish border this morning. But what we can say with certainty is that these kinds of indiscriminate and senseless attacks are what Ukrainians endure every day.”

Moscow confirms the attacks

Moscow's Defense Ministry confirmed attacks on railway infrastructure in western Ukraine, which it said facilitated the transportation of military cargo from European countries.

Due to the threat of air strikes, two border crossings on the Polish side temporarily suspended operations. A few hundred people were evacuated for a short period. By the afternoon, the situation at the border was back to normal again.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote earlier that Russian attacks near the Polish-Ukrainian border in the Volyn region led to a locomotive catching fire and damaging a gas station.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sipha called for tougher consequences for Moscow. He wrote on the “X” platform that the Russian attacks on the Polish-Ukrainian border are not just a continuation of the attacks on Ukraine’s international border.

He said: “This is Putin’s terrorism, which is directly ‘knocking’ on the doors of the European Union and NATO. “The Russian barbarians are at your gate, dear partners.”

Johnson criticized Western powers for what he sees as a lack of support for Ukraine.

The former British Prime Minister stressed: “When will we give them the air defenses they need? Why don't we unfreeze Putin's money and give it to Ukraine? There are more than 140 billion euros ($163 billion) in a Belgian bank account - and about 10 billion pounds ($13.5 billion) in London. “Britain can lead this trend.”

Ukraine has been confronting a Russian invasion for more than four and a half years with Western assistance. Russian attacks frequently cause death and damage to railway traffic and stations.

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.