Rute: Putin will not dissuade us from supporting Ukraine

NATO's secretary general said a Russian drone attack on a train near Ukraine's border with Poland would not deter Kiev's Western allies from supporting Ukraine.

Mark Rutte said the attack on the passenger train showed how desperate Vladimir Putin had become. "He thinks he can stop us from supporting Ukraine and that he can undermine our unity. He is wrong. Our response is to increase our support," the NATO secretary general said, according to the Guardian.

European leaders condemned an attack in which a Russian drone hit a passenger train on Ukraine's border with Poland on Sunday, shortly after a convoy of high-ranking diplomats and former leaders passed along that route.

An earlier train, carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former CIA Director David Petraeus, which was running ahead of schedule, may have been the target of a Russian drone attack, Ukrainian Railways said.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Andy Burnham echoed Rutte's, saying the attack "was a futile attempt by Russia to undermine our support for Ukraine. That will not deter us."

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the aim of the attack was "to intimidate Europeans, to discourage them and, above all, to divide them."

The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kalas, said the attack was “clearly a message to the Western world.” Speaking on the sidelines of an Arctic conference in Finland, she said: “I think the question for us is what are we going to get out of that message? I think we should do the opposite. We should show that we stand with Ukraine and that we are not going to be intimidated by it, because otherwise, you know, Russia will simply achieve what it wants, which is to subjugate Ukraine.”

Spokesperson Kaja Kalas added: “We strongly condemn the latest Russian attacks near the Ukrainian-Polish border, including the attack on a passenger train,” and recalled the EU’s recent decision to approve a tranche of €6,1 billion under a €90 billion loan to Ukraine.

"We are taking measures to better equip Ukraine to defend itself and we will continue to stand firmly with Ukraine and its right to defend itself against Russian aggression," the spokesman said.

At least six people were killed and more than 40 were injured in overnight attacks across Ukraine involving more than 450 Russian drones and missiles. The Ukrainian Air Force said it had intercepted 405 drones and four missiles, according to The Guardian.

Western Ukraine, which is usually more peaceful than Kiev or the eastern front area, has suffered particularly hard hits.

The attacks, which prompted airstrikes in Poland, came as EU diplomats met in Brussels today for last-minute talks on extending the bloc's sanctions against more than 2.600 Russian individuals and entities involved in supporting Vladimir Putin's war.

The sanctions expire tomorrow, but their extension has been blocked by a dispute over whether one person should be removed from the list.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram on Sunday: "Ukrainians are fighting every day to prevent these attacks from spreading further to Europe, giving their lives and preventing the spread of aggression."

Ukrainian Railways, which operates the line, said the train carrying security advisers from several European countries, as well as Johnson, Petraeus and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, passed through the border crossing shortly before the drone attack.

Ukrainian Railways stated that the train departed ahead of schedule and could have been the target of a Russian drone.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned on Sunday that increased Russian attacks on Ukraine in the coming weeks could have repercussions in Poland, as he chaired an emergency meeting called after Russian drone strikes near the border.

"The coming weeks and months will be a period of very intense activity on the part of the Russian side," he said, adding that Poland "cannot rule out the possibility that this escalation will also affect our territory."

He added that Polish security services, as well as intelligence agencies of allied countries, had warned that an attack like this was likely. "We knew that the Russian plan would include an attempt to disrupt, paralyze and perhaps even destroy Ukrainian border crossings," Tusk said.