MOWSCOW: The Kremlin said on Monday it would keep striking targets across the “whole” of Ukraine, when asked about a rare drone attack on the Polish border that has rattled Warsaw and its European allies.
NATO-member Poland said on Sunday that Russia had hit a railway locomotive inside Ukraine, about two kilometres (one mile) from their shared border, just days after Kyiv said it had hit a crossing at its border with Moldova.
Russia has struck western regions of Ukraine throughout the war, which began in Febru-ary 2022, but attacks so close to Ukraine’s western borders are rare.
“If I understand correctly, this is about Ukrainian territory,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked by media about the strikes.
“Our military are fulfilling their tasks on the whole territory of Ukraine… They will continue to do so,” he added.
Western Ukraine is hundreds of kilometres away from the front, and from the eastern and southern regions that the Kremlin claims as its own.
Poland, one of Ukraine’s main allies, said Sunday’s attacks were an “escalation” and con-vened a special government meeting that evening.
Both Kyiv and Warsaw confirmed the attacks, in which they said no-one had been hurt. Ukraine said Russia had also narrowly missed hitting a diplomatic train with senior West-ern officials onboard.
Peskov did not comment on the train strike directly.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday that Warsaw had earlier obtained in-formation that Moscow might be planning attacks on border crossings.
“We knew that in the Russian plan there will be an attempt to de-organise, paralyse and maybe even destroy Ukrainian border crossings, which also affects our country,” Tusk said. Last week, Kyiv said Russia had hit a checkpoint on Ukraine’s border with Moldova, killing two people.
The European Union, of which Poland is a member, said on Monday the strikes were in-tended to “scare Western countries from supporting Ukraine”. –Agencies
