Six people have been injured in a Russian drone strike on a train in the Kharkiv region, local authorities said, as Moscow scales up its targeting of commuter trains. The attack with a Shahed drone hit the rear end of the Kharkiv-Izium train on Wednesday morning, causing a fire to breakout, the Izium City Military Administration said. On Tuesday, Moscow attacked several commuter trains across Ukraine. Prime minister Sergii Koretskyi said close to 100 people were evacuated after Russian drones hit a train in the northern Sumy region. In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, emergency services said a rail worker was killed in a double-tap strike. The chief of rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said another commuter train was hit in the region with some passengers suffering shrapnel wounds. The civilian attacks come amid renewed US-led efforts to find a peace agreement in Ukraine, with a visit by US envoys to Kyiv and Moscow preceding a one-hour phone call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on Tuesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Moscow hopes for new trilateral talks with Kyiv and Washington in the near future. Alex Croft9 September 2026 16:29Kremlin says UAE is preferred venue for future Ukraine talksMoscow views the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi as a preferred venue for talks on Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday.Speaking to state television channel Vesti, Ushakov also said the United States should halt aid to Kyiv if the fighting is to stop.The Kremlin said earlier on Wednesday that it hoped US-mediated talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine would resume soon following a phone call between US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin.With ReutersGleb Stolyarov9 September 2026 16:01Europe feeling pain of rising gas prices, says KremlinEuropean countries are struggling with rising gas prices but could purchase cheap gas from Russia, the Kremlin has said.The price of natural gas in Europe has soared as a result of the war in Iran, hitting their highest level last week since late 2022, when the start of the Ukraine conflict prompted Europe to cut off Russian pipeline gas.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Europe was harming itself by buying expensive gas at spot prices as opposed to the more affordable Russian option.Alex Croft9 September 2026 15:30Analysis | Why the AfD’s German triumph is a win for Putin – and leaves Ukraine exposedThe success of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in state elections could herald a disaster for Ukraine, a European victory for Vladimir Putin, and a stampede of greed over democracy orchestrated by one man.Kirill Dmitriev is to Donald Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, what Putin is to the 47th president – their favourite and much favoured Russian.What Putin gives Trump – the thrill of proximity to unlimited power – Dmitriev offers to America: unlimited potential wealth. He is the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Moscow’s sovereign wealth government slush pot, and he has close links to the AfD.There was unbridled delight in Moscow with the success of the AfD over the weekend.Dmitriev called the result a win that “humiliates the arrogance, narrow-mindedness, warmongering, ineptitude and hypocrisy” of German chancellor Friedrich Merz’s governing coalition.The AfD, seen by German intelligence as an extremist organisation, has enjoyed (among other things) Russian support for its social media campaigns to win the elections in Saxony-Anhalt, according to German and other European intelligence sources.Read the full analysis by our world affairs editor Sam Kiley.Alex Croft9 September 2026 15:02Alex Croft9 September 2026 14:38Russia to strip contract soldiers of one-off payment if laws violated at homeRussia's defence ministry wants to claim back part of a one-off payout from contract service personnel found guilty of criminal offences at home, a document showed, amid increasing cases of domestic violence among those fighting Russia's war on Ukraine.Russia does not disclose official statistics on ⁠domestic violence committed by its service personnel but independent media, citing military ‌courts data, reported ​hundreds of such cases, including ‌murders, since the start of ​the 2022 invasion.Russia provides a minimum one-off payment of 400,000 roubles (£3,418) for soldiers signing at least a one-year contract to fight in the war with Ukraine ⁠that Moscow calls "a special military ​operation".In practice, one-off payouts may reach a few million roubles per soldier, depending on the region, in addition to a monthly salary.Russia is also reducing sentences for those serving time in prison in exchange for signing up for the war, among other benefits, as it seeks to bolster army numbers.Russia has seen a rise in domestic violence as fighters return home for leave, and the defence ministry wants to claim part ⁠of the one-off payments "in order to increase the motivation of military personnel to comply with the law", in case of a criminal offence, a draft law published on Monday showed.If active contract service members are found guilty of a criminal offence which does not imply a prison sentence, they should pay back a portion of the one-off payout based on the months of the service left, the document showed.Alex Croft9 September 2026 14:14Six injured in Russian drone strike on civilian commuter trainA Russian drone strike on a train in the Kharkiv region has injured six people, local authorities have said. The attack with a Shahed drone hit the rear end of the Kharkiv-Izium train on Wednesday morning, causing a fire to breakout, the Izium City Military Administration said. Moscow appears to be scaling up its strikes on civilian commuter trains. On Tuesday, it attacked several commuter trains across Ukraine. Prime minister Sergii Koretskyi said lose to 100 people were evacuated after Russian drones hit a train in the northern Sumy region. In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, emergency services said a rail worker was killed in a double-tap strike. The chief of rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said another commuter train was hit in the region with some passengers suffering shrapnel wounds. (Emergency Service of Ukraine)Alex Croft9 September 2026 13:49Vladimir Putin is winning his war to bring down Europe from withinIn Berlin, it is being called an earthquake. In Kyiv, it is being read as a countdown: the strongest result any far-right party has achieved in a German state election since the Second World War was recorded on Sunday when Alternative for Germany won 43.8 per cent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt. It took 39 of the 83 seats, three short of an outright majority.I have spent the better part of two decades fighting Vladimir Putin. He does not need to win elections in other people’s countries. He only needs to wait for them.The AfD has never hidden what it would do. Its programme calls for an end to military aid to Ukraine, an end to sanctions on Russia and the reopening of the Nord Stream pipelines. In June, the party’s foreign policy spokesman flew to St Petersburg, against the explicit advice of the German foreign ministry, and met the head of Gazprom and one of Putin’s senior envoys to discuss restarting Russian gas. Putin’s envoy posted afterwards that he looked forward to building a great future together with the AfD.None of this is a secret. It is a manifesto.Bill Browder writes:Alex Croft9 September 2026 13:24Turkey to start drilling challenging Black Sea wellTurkey is set to start drilling a challenging oil-targeted well in the western Black Sea, Ankara announced on Wednesday."We will soon begin drilling an oil-targeted well in the western Black Sea,” energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar said. “It will be a difficult drilling operation and will take some time," he told broadcaster CNBC-e.Turkey has previously said it plans six exploration wells across the western, central and eastern Black Sea in 2026 as it seeks new oil and natural gas discoveries.Alex Croft9 September 2026 12:59Kremlin says it hopes for direct Ukraine-Russia peace talks in near futureWe’ve just hears from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said that Russia hopes peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, mediated by the US, will resume in the near future. The Kremlin declined to discuss any potential elements of a possible peace settlement, Peskov added.He was speaking after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had a telephone call on Tuesday to discuss prospects for ending the war.The last time trilateral talks took place was in February. Alex Croft9 September 2026 12:34