Ukraine train strike shows Putin desperate, NATO chief says

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on September 14 that a Russian strike on a Warsaw-bound passenger train near Ukraine's border with Poland showed President Vladimir Putin was “desperate” and would not deter Kyiv's Western backers.

“The strike on a passenger train in Ukraine yesterday shows how desperate Putin has become,” Rutte told journalists. “He thinks that he can stop us from supporting Ukraine and that he can undermine our unity. He is wrong. Our answer is to increase support.”

Poland said on September 13 that Russia had hit a train about two kilometres from the Polish-Ukrainian border.

The strike came as Ukrainian officials warned of worsening attacks on the country's rail network. Oleksandr Pertsovsky, chief executive of state operator Ukrainian Railways, told AFP that Russian strikes on the network were worsening each week.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on September 14 that Ukraine was ready to support a mutual halt to strikes on critical infrastructure if Russia also stopped, after US President Donald Trump said Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to hit each other's energy targets. Russia made no immediate comment on Trump's statement in the supplied material.

Zelensky described the US proposal as a possible first step toward de-escalation, saying Ukraine would make its own moves if Washington secured real and long-term readiness from Russia. He also said no one had yet seen a genuine desire from Russia to move toward ending the war.