Ukraine War · updated 1h ago · 3 min read
NATO Chief Mark Rutte Pledges More Support After Russian Drone Strikes Near Ukraine-Poland Border
NATO will increase support for Ukraine following drone strikes near the Ukraine-Poland border. Rutte: Moscow's desperation evident in the strikes, prompting stronger Western backing.
Whether the attack is presented as Russia deliberately escalating terror near NATO.
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ABC News
““These coming weeks and months will be a time of very intensified actions on the Russian side, and unfortunately we cannot rule out that this escalation will also affect our territory,” Tusk said Sunday after a governmental security briefing in Warsaw.”Read the original ↗
BBC
“Putin needs to understand that his barbarism will be met with decisive action that increases the cost of war for him to an unacceptable level.”Read the original ↗
One stresses escalation impact on territory; the other foregrounds Putin’s “barbarism” rhetoric.
Drones near Poland border
Russian drone strikes near the Ukraine-Poland border prompted NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to pledge more support for Kyiv, saying the attacks on Sunday showed “Putin’s desperation.”
““Putin’s desperation and also his desire to sow fear and terror,” Rutte said”
Rutte spoke at NATO’s political headquarters in Brussels as Poland pledged increased security along its border with Ukraine after a wave of Russian drone strikes near the frontier, including two that landed within kilometers of Polish territory.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned Sunday that “These coming weeks and months will be a time of very intensified actions on the Russian side,” adding that escalation could affect “our territory.”
The ABC News report said the warnings followed a strike Sunday on a train near the Ukraine-Poland border, minutes after a diplomatic delegation that included former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt had passed through the same station, according to Ukraine’s state rail operator.A
In response to questions about the train strike, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian forces were operating “across the entire territory of Ukraine and continues to do so — and will continue to do so.”
Evacuations, accusations, quotes
A Russian drone hit a train near the Ukraine-Poland border shortly after Boris Johnson and top European security officials had passed through, and Ukrainian authorities said no casualties were reported after the strike at Yahodyn, which hit the train’s engine.
Ukrzaliznytsia said the diplomatic train “had left the station earlier than expected because of the timetable change... due to constant threats of Russian strikes,” and it also said an evacuation order for passengers on the hit train had been given “just 15 minutes” before the strike by a Russian jet-propelled drone.
Former CIA chief David Petraeus called the incident “terrifying,” saying in an interview with the New York Times: “This is the act of a truly barbaric leader trying to terrorize Ukrainian civilians.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk held an emergency meeting and said, “The escalation of the actions from the Russian side is becoming a reality, and they are getting closer and closer to our border.”
Diesel strikes and talks
The drone attacks near Poland’s border came as Donald Trump urged Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian diesel fuel facilities, saying the attacks were causing a shortage and telling reporters, “Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia.”
““Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,””
ABC7 Los Angeles reported that Trump said, “Let him go after targets but not diesel fuel, because he's causing a shortage of diesel fuel,” while Ukraine’s long-range strikes have targeted Russia’s oil and gas industry for months, Kyiv saying they fund and directly fuel Moscow’s invasion.
On the battlefield and in diplomacy, Al Jazeera reported that Russia launched 863 drones at Ukraine over the last 24 hours, while Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it shot down 389 Ukrainian drones during the night.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said later on Sunday that three-way negotiations between Ukraine, Russia and the United States could take place in October, and he said, “We do not rule out such a possibility; we are talking about the foreseeable future.”
Al Jazeera also reported that in Odesa “at least nine people were injured” in a Russian night-time attack, according to Serhiy Lysak, who heads the city’s military administration, as the strikes continued close to NATO member Poland.