A Russian drone struck a Ukrainian train near the Polish border shortly after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and senior European security officials had travelled through the area, Ukrainian authorities said.
The strike hit the train’s engine at Yahodyn, around 2 kilometres from the Polish border. No casualties were reported, and all passengers were evacuated. Ukraine’s state railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, said the train had left the station earlier than planned because of continuing threats of Russian attacks, according to BBC News.
According to the railway authority, passengers were ordered to evacuate only 15 minutes before the train was hit by a Russian jet-powered drone. Ukrzaliznytsia said it was possible that the diplomatic train carrying European officials had been the intended target.
Johnson and other national security advisers, including the UK’s Jonathan Powell, had travelled along the same railway line on a different train after attending the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv. Former CIA director David Petraeus was also reportedly at Yahodyn station on another train when the attack took place.
Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, who attended the conference, said passengers on his train had been told to prepare for evacuation. The order was later cancelled, and the train continued safely to Dorohusk, Poland. Reports that Bildt had been travelling on the same train as Johnson have not been confirmed.
Johnson condemned the attack, describing it as a “random and senseless” strike against a stationary Ukrainian locomotive. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible for the deaths of 1,700 Ukrzaliznytsia employees and called on Ukraine’s allies to provide more air-defence systems.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the attack showed that Russian aggression was moving closer to the European Union and Nato. He called for stronger sanctions against Moscow.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk held an emergency meeting and warned that Russia’s actions were escalating and moving increasingly close to Poland’s border.
Russia said it had targeted railway infrastructure in western Ukraine. Ukraine, however, accused Moscow of widening its campaign against trains, railway depots and border crossings.
The attacks have further damaged Ukraine’s railway network, which remains the country’s main form of transport after civilian air travel was suspended following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
