(KYIV) – Russian forces continued their assaults across Ukraine over the last 24 hours, killing 12 people and wounding more than 60, as diplomatic tensions escalated following a drone strike on a Warsaw bound train just two kilometres from the Polish border.
Two explosions were heard in the town of Priuki in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region on Monday morning after the city came under Russian attack. At least three people were killed in the strike and seven others injured, while warehouses and apartment blocks were damaged. Meanwhile, another three people were killed and over a dozen wounded in Russian assaults against the eastern Donetsk region, including on Kramatorsk. The city, located within mere kilometres of Russian forces, comes under near constant fire. In nearby Sloviansk, Russian strikes set cars and homes ablaze.
Speaking at the Yalta European Strategy Conference, US envoy Jared Kushner said territory remains the main obstacle to a peace deal. He added that a Ukrainian withdrawal to the territorial lines demanded by Russia would allow the rest of the agreement to fall into place.
“Look, I think right now from the Ukraine perspective, President Putin’s laid out his line of what he wants to achieve. If Ukraine wanted to withdraw to that line, then obviously we have the rest of the deal set up and put together,” Kushner said. “Ukraine right now does not want to do that. And obviously our job as the mediators is to figure out how can we come up with a creative solution that doesn’t violate their desires and that helps them achieve their objective and does it in a way that we can get Russia to end the conflict in a way that hopefully allows both parties to move forward in a framework where this doesn’t happen again.”
US President Donald Trump on Sunday called on President Zelenskyy to stop attacking Russian diesel fuel refineries, saying the attacks are causing an international shortage. “Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel because he’s causing a shortage of diesel fuel. This isn’t done by the Middle East. This is done by what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine,” Trump said. “So, we spoke to Mr. Zelenskyy about it. There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel.”
President Zelenskyy has suspended Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko with a vote expected on Tuesday to formally dismiss him. Kravchenko had already submitted his letter of resignation last week after an anti corruption investigation reached his office. The scandal escalated after Kravchenko said Monday that he had approved charges against the chief of Ukraine’s anti corruption bureau for alleged document forgery and a sham adoption intended to avoid legal liability.
Kravchenko has meanwhile left Ukraine for Paris for an event seemingly unrelated to his official position. Ukraine’s National Anti Corruption Bureau alleged that officials, including those in the prosecutor general’s office, accepted bribes to protect fraudulent call centres targeting Ukrainians and foreigners.
A Russian drone on Sunday struck the locomotive of a Warsaw bound train just two kilometres from the Polish border. The attack occurred shortly after a diplomatic train carrying top European security officials, attendees of the Yalta European Strategy Conference in Kyiv, passed through the area. No injuries were reported at the Yahodyn border crossing with passengers having only received evacuation orders 15 minutes prior to the strike.
According to Ukraine State Railways, the diplomatic train had departed ahead of schedule owing to the Russian aerial threat. Among the foreign passengers was former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with Kyiv saying that it is possible that the diplomatic train was Russia’s target. In a separate attack, Russian forces struck trucks parked at a gas station overnight into Sunday located just 800 metres from the Polish border.
Condemning Russia’s strike on the passenger train, European leaders urged for unity and greater support for Kyiv. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Noel Barrot warned that the attack was meant to intimidate Western allies. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stressed that it would not weaken Western unity.
“The strike on a passenger train in Ukraine yesterday shows how desperate Putin has become. He thinks that he can stop us from supporting Ukraine and that he can undermine our unity,” Rutte said. “He is wrong. Our answer is to increase support to Ukraine so it has what it needs to defend itself. And our commitment to NATO’s collective defence is ironclad. We will always do what is necessary to protect every inch of allied territory.”
Barrot added: “It is clearly meant to scare Western countries from supporting Ukraine, from going to Ukraine to show support. That was meant, it was clearly a message to the Western world. I think the question for us is what do we take from that message? I think we should act the opposite.”
Peter Dickinson, Ukraine Alert editor at the Atlantic Council, told Ukraine Brief that the attack was intended to intimidate European leaders. “I don’t believe in coincidences when it comes to the Kremlin. Let’s put it that way,” Dickinson said. “The attack took place on Sunday morning at a time when a large number of dignitaries, different delegates and visitors were all returning from Kyiv to Poland via that train line.
The event that they were returning from in Kyiv is by far the biggest international event in Kyiv every year. It’s attended by hundreds of foreign guests, many current senior officials, former senior officials, high ranking academics, business people, and so on. So, if you wanted to send a message to the international community to scare them, this would be the time to do it.
I really don’t believe in coincidences here. I think the Russians would have been well aware that there were a number of different trains that were carrying these foreign guests travelling along that route at that time. We can debate whether they were trying to specifically hit that train or whether they were trying to kill delegates. But certainly I think that there’s no reasonable doubt that they aimed to send a message to try and intimidate people and to say you’re not safe in Ukraine anymore.”
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said the attacks are meant to make Europeans feel that the war is coming closer to them. “I take these incidents at the border, the drone attacks, the drone approach flights targeting this train very, very seriously. It shows what we have been able to observe over the past few years,” Pistorius said. “The aim is to give precisely that impression to people in Germany and Europe who fear that the war in Ukraine is moving closer to them.”
Dickinson said the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin believes Europe is weak and can be intimidated.
“Putin’s view of Europe is that Europe is weak. Putin believes that Europe is fundamentally vulnerable and weak and will not stand up to him if he bullies them. He believes he can intimidate them. He does that in various ways. He does that with his nuclear rhetoric. He does that with these sabotage operations, this so called shadow war that he’s been conducting for years now. And that is clearly escalating,” Dickinson said. “I think his goal is obvious. He wants to get to a stage where European politicians are under pressure from their own electorate saying, ‘Look, we don’t want to be put at risk here. We don’t want to vote for someone who’s going to continue to support Ukraine.’ He wants to get Europeans to say, ‘You know what? We’re going to step back from support for Ukraine because we don’t want to have a short term problem from this Russian aggression.’ Although I think a lot of senior figures in Europe understand very well that if Ukraine were to fall, if Putin were to succeed in Ukraine, then they would have a much bigger problem with Russia. And it would mean a much greater security risk to all of Europe, especially frontline countries, and it would also involve a lot more financial burden in terms of the defence budget. So, Putin’s really trying to scare people. He’s trying to intimidate them. And he’s trying to create a scenario where Europe essentially abandons Ukraine or cuts back its support.”
On Trump’s call for Ukraine to stop striking Russian diesel refineries, Dickinson said the claim is dubious. “From a technical point of view, it’s a very dubious claim that the global challenges to diesel supply or price, the pressure on diesel prices, are a result of Ukraine and Russia. Russia is a significant exporter historically, but it’s not the main exporter. I think in terms of simple numbers, a much bigger issue here is the Strait of Hormuz and the American war with Iran,” Dickinson said.
“But I think Trump’s under a lot of pressure now. He’s under a lot of pressure domestically. Diesel fuel is very popular amongst farmers in agricultural communities. People are a core constituent, the core voters of Trump. He’s facing elections, or his party is facing elections in a couple of months. And a lot of people who generally support Trump are not very happy about what they’re seeing in terms of fuel prices in the United States. So, it’s certainly convenient for Trump to turn around and say, ‘Well, you know what? The problem here is not me. It’s not a problem that I caused with Iran. The problem is Ukraine and what it’s doing with Russia.’ So, I think there’s certainly a strong element of that.”
Trump later wrote on his Truth Social profile that Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian energy targets and that Russia has agreed likewise. He also said that diesel prices are driven by the Russian war in Ukraine and not by Iran. So far, President Zelenskyy has not responded to this. Dickinson said he would be sceptical of any such agreement.
“We haven’t had final confirmation from the Russians and the Ukrainians yet. With Trump, you never know. He might have jumped the gun here, but let’s assume that they have given their word on this. I think that’s the only way it could work. Ukraine offering some sort of a bilateral ceasefire on energy targets would make sense from a Ukrainian perspective. In fact, Ukraine has proposed that on multiple occasions, again just recently. They’ve said to the Russians, ‘Look, let’s have a ceasefire at sea on maritime traffic to get our harvests out, which Russia and Ukraine both need to do.’ And they’ve also said let’s have a moratorium or a ceasefire on strikes on energy sites. So I think Ukraine would be prepared to do that if Russia’s prepared to do it as well. But until very recently, the Russians have said no, we’re not going to do that, we’re not interested,” Dickinson said.
“So unless Trump has been able to somehow sweet talk Putin here or pressure him, or unless of course the other alternative would be if in fact Russia has wanted this and they’ve used Trump to propose this in an indirect manner. We shall see, but I would certainly be sceptical. Previous ceasefires have not worked, have not been effective. The Ukrainians have always accused Russia of breaking those ceasefires. So let’s see how this plays out further down the line. At this point I would definitely be sceptical. I think the one scenario that might make sense is if the Russians had appealed to Trump and said, ‘Can you broker this ceasefire and let it come from your side rather than from our side?’ Because obviously from a Russian point of view, it looks very weak for them to say to Ukraine, ‘We want a ceasefire.’ So it makes much more sense in terms of Putin’s imaging, in terms of the optics of it for him, to be able to use Trump in this manner, much as he did earlier this year on Victory Day in May when he used Trump to broker a ceasefire so he could hold his parade in May because it was very embarrassing for Putin to ask Ukraine for a ceasefire himself. So there is precedent here. But let’s wait and say I would say at this point it definitely pays to be skeptical.”
Be First to Comment