Poland

KYIV: Poland and Ukraine on Sunday denounced Russian strikes close to the Polish border, including on a Warsaw-bound train and near a frontier checkpoint — as an “escalation” in the war.

Ukraine’s rail operator said former British prime minister Boris Johnson and ex-US CIA director David Petraeus were at a border train station nearby around the time the train was hit.

But the strikes came as US President Donald Trump called on Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to halt attacks on Russian refineries, saying it was causing a shortage of diesel fuel and “there are plenty of other targets”.

Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian oil refineries in a bid to hurt Russia’s war effort.

Russia attacked western Ukraine with drones Sunday, just days after US envoys visited Kyiv and Moscow in a bid to revive talks to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II. European nations are meanwhile worried by what they say is increased Russian-orchestrated sabotage acts on their soil.

Poland and Ukraine said a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train was struck just two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Polish border, but reported no casualties.

“Shortly before the locomotive was hit at the Ukrainian-Polish border, a diplomatic train was at Yagodyn station. There were, among others, security advisers from several EU member states and former European leaders on board, including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson,” said the Ukrzaliznytsia rail operator.

“In another train that was at Yagodyn station at the very moment of the attack was former CIA Director David Petraeus,” it added. The operator did not say how far the officials were from the train attacked.

Zelensky said Moscow had “deliberately” struck the locomotive.

“It is precisely to prevent these strikes from spreading further into Europe that Ukrainian men and women fight every day, give their lives, and do not allow the aggression to expand,” Zelensky said.

– Poland warns of possible more attacks –

Poland has been one of Ukraine’s main allies and, with Ukrainian airspace closed, trains to Poland have been one of the main routes out of the war-torn country, used by refugees.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk chaired an emergency meeting in Warsaw following the strikes, warning he expected Russia to escalate the war “in the coming weeks”. He added: “We cannot exclude that the escalation will also affect our territory… I hope not.”

Russia said it had hit “railway infrastructure used to transport military cargo” from European countries.

– Russia ‘knocking at Europe’s door’ –

Speaking in Kyiv, Poland’s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the “escalation” should lead to allies to “double” their support for Ukraine.

“This was just a few hundred meters from the Polish border; this affects the safety of my countrymen,” Sikorski said.

“I understand that nobody died this morning in that particular attack, but it could easily have happened.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said President Vladimir Putin considered Russia was “de facto” at war with Europe.

“Europe may consider, or reassure itself, that it is not at war with Russia, but Russia does not see it that way. De facto, it is already at war with the Euro-Atlantic space, carrying out various hostile actions,” Sybiga said.

“Putin’s terror is literally knocking at the door of the European Union and NATO.”

Russian attacks killed at least two people on Sunday in the frontline city of Kramatorsk.

Twenty people, including two children, were also wounded in a second day of attacks on the southern port city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said.

– Three-way talks –

The Kremlin, meanwhile, said negotiations with Ukraine and the United States on the war could take place in October.

“We do not rule out such a possibility; we are talking about the foreseeable future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, cited by Russia’s Ria and Tass news agencies.

Several rounds of negotiations have failed, while US-led efforts stalled during the Middle East war.

In an interview released on Saturday, Zelensky said he would be willing to meet Putin at the G20 summit in Miami in December.

But Peskov said that was “impossible”, speaking to AFP in New Delhi on Saturday, repeating Moscow’s demand that a meeting could only take place in the Russian capital.

Upon arrival at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, Infantino remained tightlipped on his re-election as FIFA president.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is staying mum on the leadership challenge he faces as a result of his failed plan to sell rights to private investors in the World Cup, and he declined to answer questions about his re-election upon arrival at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland.

Infantino, who faces continuing pressure and the prospect of a criminal case, was in the stands speaking with Polish football federation president Cezary Kulesza as hosts Poland faced Argentina on the opening day of the tournament on Saturday.

However, when he arrived at the Arena Katowice, the 56-year-old avoided questions about his future at the global governing body for football.

“There will be a lot to say, but there will be a right place and a right time to say this. It’s not today, it’s not here, but here and today, we are enjoying football,” Infantino told British broadcaster Sky News outside the venue.

“We are continuing at FIFA, of course, to work to give every corner of the world a chance, an opportunity, a dignity, to find ways and means for them to become better and to participate and to celebrate football, which we all love.”

Infantino did not answer when asked if he had considered resigning or whether he still intends to stand for a fourth term next year.

Infantino had mostly kept out of the spotlight in the weeks since his World Cup sell-off plan fell apart amid opposition from many FIFA member nations and some of his own officials.

The European nations — a quarter of the 24-team field — backed down on a boycott threat last week, citing assurances from FIFA that the plan would not be revived.

Legal action over the original attempt continues, and Europe has a leading role in efforts to oust Infantino ahead of next year’s FIFA election.

A court filing by FIFA on Thursday accused UEFA of running a “smear campaign against FIFA and its leadership” as the European football body seeks discovery of evidence related to the FIFA Forward Enterprise plan.

Infantino infuriated football leaders worldwide in July, shortly after the World Cup ended, when his plan for a $20bn subsidiary controlling FIFA commercial rights, including the World Cup, was revealed by British daily The Times.

The spinoff was to be 20 percent owned by investors led by a New York fund created by Joshua Kushner, whose initial money was to pay offers of $20m to each of FIFA’s 211 member federations. They were given a mid-September deadline to accept.

The FIFA president dropped his proposal within four days. UEFA had support from the Asian Football Confederation and North American football body CONCACAF, and there was criticism of the plan and of Infantino from senior FIFA officials.

Sometimes travel delivers a real shock. I’m moving along the boulevards in the Polish city of Łódź, enjoying the excellent cafes and warm sunshine, when I spot the vans. They are parked up on the verge, with racks of clothing and heavily laden tables behind. I can’t resist a Sunday morning market and walk towards a group of men huddled around a car that is covered in blankets. And then it happens. They turn – and I see they are weighing pistols in their hands. I recognise the lean profile of a German Luger, and then the bulkier Colt 45.

There is a second of doubt. I hesitate. They replace the weapons on the display and walk away laughing. I approach. On the car roof is a row of dusty soldiers’ helmets. “We were repairing a pavement in the centre of town,” says the seller cheerfully, handing me a badge to inspect. “Imagine! For 80 years, all this stuff was just under our feet.”

It’s a Wehrmacht shoulder badge from Kuban 1943, a last-ditch post-Stalingrad action on the Crimean peninsula. Who wore this, I wonder? A veteran of the Russian front who almost made it home? Nothing is clear, except that in Łódź, the past is never far away.

I arrive the previous night, a little disoriented, whizzing past unlit buildings, huge brick structures like Victorian factories. “Are we in the city yet?” I ask.

The taxi driver gives me a quizzical look. “Yes, this is Łódź.” I note the pronunciation, like “wudge”. I glimpse five-storey blocks, tree-lined streets, a tramline. “I could never live anywhere else,” he adds. A huge blue graffito is caught in the headlights, like a monstrous alien creature.

“Why?” I ask, but we are already pulling up outside an immense red-brick building, my hotel, and he never answers my question. The reception area is huge, with a strange scalloped ceiling in red brick that hints at a previous incarnation as a factory.

This is my first visit to Łódź, a city about 75 miles (120km) south-west of Warsaw. My interest has been piqued by a list of notable people associated with the place. It features an astonishing number of Oscar-winning or nominated film directors connected to the city: Andrzej Wajda (The Promised Land), Roman Polanski (The Pianist), Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida), Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa), Krzysztof Kieślowski (Three Colours trilogy) and Zbigniew Rybczyński (Tango).

But under the bonnet there is a vast array of talent in acting, production and technical excellence. The city’s film school is responsible, of course, but Łódź itself features as a setting, too, notably in David Lynch’s Inland Empire and Wajda’s masterpiece The Promised Land.

Łódź, I had decided, must be fascinating. Any visit starts with Piotrkowska Street, the longest shopping street in Europe at about 2½ miles. My guide, Anna, takes me through Plac Wolności (Freedom Square), where a dance festival is in progress, with hooded hip‑hoppers rubbing shoulders with troupes of line dancers and girls in colourfully embroidered traditional dress. This is a city where music and dance are never far away. We dodge down a side alley and emerge in a striking art installation – an entire street, Pasaż Róży (Rosa’s Passage), covered in mirrors by the artist Joanna Rajkowska. Back on the main pedestrianised route, the mix of ancient and modern continues: 19th‑century porticoed palaces adorned with colourful graffiti.

I ask Anna how Łódź fared in the second world war. “It was not too badly damaged,” she says. “Both the Germans and the Russians wanted the industry intact.”

There is no medieval heart, no ornate houses like in Wrocław or Kraków. What Łódź possesses is an impressive array of 19th-century factories, mostly textiles, built to show off their owners’ power, wealth and architectural aspirations. Now, this heritage has become a stunning example of urban regeneration.

We turn into OFF Piotrkowska, a complex of beautiful old textile mills reborn as a hive of small businesses. There are lots of vibrant restaurants and bars, but Anna wants to show me a shop that she likes: Pan Tu Nie Stał. “It was a saying in communist times: ‘You’re not in the queue.’ We said it to people trying to push in,” Anna says.

This is the spot to pick up a T-shirt featuring Soviet combine harvesters or some Czas Pokaże (Time Will Tell) socks. The shop says a lot about the Polish attitude to communist times: none of the maudlin ostalgie of East Germany; this nostalgia comes with healthy dashes of colour and humour.

It did all start, however, with a disaster. The old mills had survived two world wars, but died in the economic collapse after communism ended in 1989. “Everything closed down,” says Anna. “We call that time the transformacja. It was very hard.”

We stroll into the Manufaktura area, once the site of a vast textile business started by a local scrap metal dealer, Izrael Poznański, in 1872, and now another beautifully restored collection of red-brick buildings housing restaurants, bars, shops and the fascinating Museum of the Factory. Next door is the palace that Poznański built, a neo-baroque monstrosity of bulging wealth, now the city museum.

After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Łódź became part of the Russian empire, a melting pot of German, Jewish, Polish and Russian influences. In the 1870s, Poznański was one of a group of men who saw the potential of steam power. They imported looms from England and were soon amassing unimaginable wealth, constructing a city of handsome red-brick factories, the core of which still remains.

The Museum of the Factory houses a collection of working looms that date back to the 1880s. Only four machines are ever turned on due to noise pollution laws – in the old days, one factory might have had hundreds. This was the city of the deaf, but the deafest of all were the bosses, oblivious to the terrible hardships of their workforce, from the founders through to their communist successors. When Wajda came to these mills in the early 1970s, planning The Promised Land, he needed to make only minor adjustments to start filming. The tired faces, the crashing looms, the heat and the dust – it was all very much like 1880.

Is that your favourite film, I ask Anna? She shakes her head. “Cold War by Pawlikowski,” she says. “I love that film.”

This 2018 masterpiece is the story of a tragic love affair conducted across the Iron Curtain in the years following the second world war. Based on the lives of Pawlikowski’s parents, it is dark and sensuous, full of great music and dance. Pawlikowski has used Łodż as a location.

We move on to the Museum of Cinematography, a tour de force that warrants some preparation (watch films by Polish directors). They have everything from early working equipment to props from the most recent Oscar triumphs. By the time I get to the end, I have only a few minutes to rush to the Central Museum of Textiles.

There I find a technician, Przemysław, about to start up a 1893 Greenwood loom. He’s a former policeman with a few tales to tell, but right now one question is bothering me. “Why did film-making succeed so brilliantly in this city of textiles?” I ask him.

He taps the cast iron loom and chuckles. “I’ll show you.”

With the flick of a switch, the loom begins to clank and turn. The noise is incredible. Przemysław is moving around, adjusting and calibrating, his face concentrated. I see the spools of thread begin to unwind, the shuttle dashing back and forth, the warp and weft rhythmically rising and falling. The different colours, each no more than a thin line, but magically coming together. And from the lip of the machine spills a beautiful multicoloured cloth.

Przemysław looks at me and raises a questioning eyebrow. “Like weaving a story, right?”

The trip was provided by the Polish Tourism Organisation, with Holiday Extras lending travel support in car parking, insurance, airport transfers and hotels

I used to live in Poland. I worked in a fish-and-chip shop in the western city of Poznań, boning cod and peeling potatoes for £1.50 an hour. With the exception of that job, I enjoyed everything about my time in the country, not least the food. I liked the chicken broth with noodles, the slippery herring, the knuckles of pork the size of basketballs, the cold beetroot soup that beats gazpacho hands down.

One thing I was less delighted by were Polish dumplings – pierogi. It wasn’t that they weren’t nice – they were – it was more that they didn’t seem to warrant the extreme levels of affection and esteem Poles often bestow on the doughy parcels. By being ambivalent about them, I was going against a well-established grain.

It is claimed by some that pierogi arrived in Poland via Marco Polo (actually a myth), and that the oldest written Polish recipe dates to 1682 (true). In short, these things have pedigree, and you denigrate them at your peril. I almost lost a Polish friend once for not being smitten with Poland’s answer to gyoza and ravioli. Such was her reaction, you’d have thought I’d denigrated the late Polish pope, John Paul II.

“I don’t understand this mentality,” said Paulina. “Have you tried the ones filled with cheese and potato?”

“Yep.”

“Have you had the ones from the fancy place on the old square?”

“Yep.”

“Have you had the frozen ones from the supermarket?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Have you had the ones from the milk bar near Freedom Street?”

“More than once.”

“Hm. Have you tried my grandmother’s?”

“Erm, no.”

“Well there you are. Mystery solved. That explains your mentality. You have to reserve judgment and stop talking nonsense until you’ve tried the dumplings of a babcia.”

I had versions of this conversation several times when telling Poles that I was merely fond of pierogi rather than hopelessly devoted. On each occasion, the babcia (grandmother figure) in question was either dead or otherwise engaged, meaning that their dumplings couldn’t be tested, and my opinion – that pierogi are just OK – couldn’t be validated.

Until now perhaps. Having enjoyed searching for the perfect steak frites in Paris, I set myself the task of giving pierogi a proper crack of the whip in one of Poland’s finest cities – its jewel on the Baltic coast, Gdańsk. Could the old port city cure me of my pierogi scepticism? Would the dumplings of a local babcia bowl me over? The answer was yes … and no.

Gdański Bowke

Poland has asked the European Commission to impose a €250 million ($291.3 million) fine on Meta, accusing the social media company of failing to adequately tackle fraudulent advertisements and scams on its platforms.

Polish Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said on Wednesday that Meta had failed to respond effectively despite repeated warnings from Polish authorities and cybersecurity teams.

“Despite repeated reports from the relevant Polish authorities and teams responsible for cybersecurity, Meta still does not provide an effective and adequate response to fraudulent advertisements,” Gawkowski said in a post on X.

Poland’s Cybersecurity Tests Raise Concerns

The request followed tests conducted by CERT Polska, Poland’s national cybersecurity incident response team. The team identified 122 advertisements that were classified as fraudulent.

According to Gawkowski, Meta decided not to remove 106 of those advertisements, representing 86.8% of the cases. Only 10 advertisements were removed, while authorities received no response in six cases.

The Polish minister called on Meta to introduce more effective tools to identify and remove scams, false advertising and promotions for illegal applications.

Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The dispute adds to broader regulatory and legal pressure on Meta over the content and safety of its platforms.

The company has faced criticism over allegations that its products can harm children and that it has misled the public about their safety. In Poland, Meta has also faced criticism over fraudulent advertisements and a lawsuit filed by billionaire Rafal Brzoska over fake advertisements using his identity.

In April 2026, a Warsaw appellate court ruled that Meta was responsible for advertisements hosted on its platforms. Meta has argued that it should not be held responsible for fraudulent actions carried out by its users.

Poland’s request places the issue within the broader European debate over the responsibility of major technology platforms for illegal and deceptive content. The European Commission now faces a decision over whether the evidence provided by Polish authorities warrants further enforcement action.

Analysis

The dispute highlights a growing regulatory challenge for social media companies: whether platforms can continue treating fraudulent advertising primarily as user generated content or must take greater responsibility for what they distribute.

For Poland, the requested €250 million penalty is not only about individual scam advertisements. It is also a test of whether existing European digital regulations can compel major platforms to respond more effectively when national authorities identify systemic failures.

If the European Commission takes action, it could increase pressure on Meta to strengthen its advertising verification and content moderation systems across Europe. It could also establish a broader precedent for holding technology companies accountable when their platforms repeatedly facilitate fraudulent advertising.

With information from Reuters.