Russian drone hits train 2 km from Polish border after Johnson passes through

A Russian drone struck a Kyiv-to-Warsaw passenger train on Sunday at the Yahodyn border crossing in western Ukraine, approximately two kilometers from the Polish border, shortly after former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and senior European security officials had traveled through the same area on a separate train. All 206 passengers aboard were evacuated before the strike, and no casualties were reported.bbc+3

Near-Miss for Diplomatic Convoy

Johnson, along with UK National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, was returning from the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv when the attack occurred. Ukraine's state rail company Ukrzaliznytsia said the diplomatic train "had left the station earlier than expected because of the timetable change… due to constant threats of Russian strikes," adding that "quite possibly, the target of this drone could have been the diplomatic train". Former CIA director David Petraeus was on another train at Yahodyn station at the time of the strike.yahoo+1

Bildt told the BBC that passengers on his train were ordered to prepare for evacuation before being cleared to continue. "After a number of minutes we were informed that it was clear and we could proceed," he said. That train safely reached Poland's border station in Dorohusk.yahoo

International Condemnation

Johnson wrote on X that he could not comprehend "what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning," calling it "the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day". Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia struck the train "deliberately".english.aawsat+3

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the attack as "Putin's terror 'knocking' directly on the doors of the EU and Nato". Poland's interior minister, Marcin Kierwinski, said one drone struck near the Dorohusk-Yagodyn border crossing while the other hit the passenger train, adding: "We are treating these events with the utmost seriousness". Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk held an emergency meeting, warning that "the escalation of the actions from the Russian side is becoming a reality, and they are getting closer and closer to our border".yahoo+1

Escalating Attacks on Ukrainian Rail

The strike follows an intensifying Russian campaign against Ukraine's rail network, the country's main mode of transport since all air travel was suspended at the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. Earlier this week, two people were killed when Russian drones hit a border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova, and a female conductor died in a separate drone attack on a passenger train in southern Ukraine. Russia said it had struck "railway infrastructure" in western Ukraine.reuters+2