+++ News in the Ukraine war +++: “Putin is escalating”

After Russian attacks on a train from Kyiv to Warsaw and on Ukraine's border region with Poland, the Polish government has accused Moscow of exacerbating the conflict. “Putin is escalating,” wrote Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on X. Prime Minister Donald Tusk called a crisis team together for the afternoon. Western politicians also rely on the rail connection from Poland to Ukraine when traveling to Kyiv - the airspace over the country is closed.

According to the Ukrainian Railways, the locomotive of the passenger train from Kyiv to Warsaw was attacked at the Jahodyn border station on Sunday. The passengers were evacuated in good time and no one was hurt, it was said. The Polish railway PKP said it had taken over the train from the Ukrainian side more than six hours late. He continued on his way to Warsaw.

According to Poland's Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, a drone also struck in western Ukraine one kilometer from Poland's border and another at a distance of five kilometers. Polish F-16 fighter jets and a reconnaissance aircraft controlled the situation. The airspace over Poland was therefore not violated.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote that Moscow's attacks set a locomotive on fire and damaged a gas station near the Polish-Ukrainian border in the Volyn region. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called for tougher consequences for Moscow. Russian attacks on the Polish-Ukrainian border are not simply a continuation of the attacks on the Ukrainian state borders, he wrote on Platform X. "This is Putin's terror, knocking directly on the doors of the EU and NATO."

Poland's Prime Minister Tusk called an emergency meeting of the heads of departments and the uniformed services for the late afternoon. “We take these events extremely seriously,” wrote Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski on X. (dpa)

The Defense Ministry in Moscow confirmed this morning, among other things, attacks on railway infrastructure in western Ukraine. They would ensure the transport of military supplies from European countries, it was said.

Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion with Western help for more than four and a half years. Russian attacks often result in deaths and damage to train traffic and stations. (dpa)

According to information from the news magazine Spiegel, a privately chartered special train had to be partially evacuated due to the attack near the border crossing. On board this train were one of the closest advisors to Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), the foreign and security policy advisor in the Chancellery Günter Sautter, and the former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had been in Kyiv for consultations.

The Green Party member of the Bundestag Robin Wagener, who according to Spiegel also traveled on the chartered train, wrote on the online service X that Russia was continuing to escalate and explode. He shared a video of the drone attack on the Kyiv-Warsaw train and explained: "This morning I rode the train on the same route where this attack was." Sometimes chance decides “whether you get through safely.” Russia is "an immense threat to the security of Europe. Too many of us have not yet realized that," Wagener continued. (afp)

Two people were killed in the Russian republic of Tatarstan as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack. A drone crashed into a tree, damaging a nearby car with four occupants, the mayor of the city of Nizhnekamsk, Radmir Belyayev, said on Telegram. Two of the passengers were killed and the other two were seriously injured.

According to Belyaev, four other people were injured when a drone crashed into a residential building. Industrial and civilian objects were damaged. A fire broke out in an unspecified company and was quickly extinguished.

The General Staff in Kyiv confirmed, among other things, an attack on Nizhnekamsk. The Taneko refinery was hit and one of the tanks was found to be igniting. In the past, Kyiv had already hit the oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk during counterattacks.

Ukraine said it also attacked the Slavyansk Eko refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region. An oil processing plant and a tank park were hit, Ukrainian military intelligence HUR said. A large-scale fire broke out. The reason given was that the facility in Slavyansk-na-Kubani served the Russian war of aggression.

The civil defense staff of the Krasnodar Region only said on Telegram that a fire had broken out on the premises of an unspecified company. Falling drone debris also damaged a gas pipeline in a residential area of ​​the city of Slavyansk-na-Kubani. The refinery there had already been hit in the past. In the summer it burned for several days as a result of an attack. (dpa)

The head of the Russian state nuclear energy company, Alexei Likhachev, accuses Ukraine of an attack on diesel trucks near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Likhachev explains that two Russian soldiers were killed and several others were injured. Ukraine is thereby deliberately endangering the security of the facility occupied by Russia. Fuel is important for generators, which ensure the cooling of the reactors in the event of a failure of the external power supply. According to Likhachev, the attack took place on Friday, and the Rosatom boss made the allegations on Sunday. Both sides regularly accuse each other of endangering the safety of Europe's largest nuclear power plant. (rtr)

According to Russian information, China's head of state Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are offering to mediate peace talks on Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes this willingness, the state news agency Tass quotes Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. The three politicians will take part in the Brics summit in Delhi this weekend. (rtr)

Ukraine expects negotiations on a peace solution with Russia and with US mediation to continue next month. “We are preparing for October,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, in an interview with reporters. He confirmed that this meant discussions in a three-way format. However, he did not give an exact date or location of the meetings.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also recently stated in an interview with Izvestia that the Kremlin assumes that the USA, Russia and Ukraine will be able to continue the dialogue “in the foreseeable future”. "However, another question is how successful this dialogue will be - this is difficult to predict at the moment, as the situation on the ground for Ukrainians is getting worse every time," he claimed.

US negotiators visited Moscow and Kyiv last weekend and explored the possibilities of a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine. A continuation of the dialogue, which had been interrupted for months, in a three-way format was envisaged. These talks are conducted by negotiators who must always consult with their respective heads of state. Only at the end can a direct meeting between the presidents of the USA, Russia and Ukraine be expected. (dpa)