NATO chief says strike on passenger train in Ukraine shows Putin's desperation

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte believes Russia's strike on a passenger train locomotive in Ukraine near the Polish border shows the desperation of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.

Rutte said at a briefing with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša that Russia is becoming increasingly reckless as it continues its war in Ukraine.

"In Ukraine, yesterday shows how desperate Putin has become. He thinks he can stop us from supporting Ukraine and that he can undermine our unity. He is wrong," he said.

Rutte said the Allies' response will be to increase support for Ukraine so that it has everything it needs to defend itself.

He also pointed out that NATO will do everything possible to defend every inch of Allied territory.

Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, believes the Russian strike near the Polish border was a "message to the Western world".

On 13 September, Russian forces attacked the locomotive of a passenger train in Volyn Oblast, 2 km from the border with Poland. The state-run railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) believes the target of the Russian attack near the Polish border, in which a locomotive on another train was hit, may have been a train carrying Western politicians and security advisers.