Russian drone hits train near Poland border after Boris Johnson passes
A Russian drone struck a train near the Ukraine-Poland border on Sunday, shortly after senior visiting officials, including former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, had passed through the area, Ukraine's state rail operator said.
Ukrzaliznytsia said a diplomatic train carrying Johnson, Bildt and security advisers from several European Union states had left Yahodyn station ahead of schedule as the visitors returned from a security conference in Kyiv. There were no immediate reports of casualties on any of the trains.
In a post on Telegram, the rail operator said: "It is highly probable that the Russian drone's intended target was in fact the diplomatic train, which had departed the station earlier than scheduled." Bildt later shared a video on X of the attack at Yahodyn station, near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing with Poland.
"This wasn't our train, but the one just minutes after us by the Polish border crossing," Bildt said. "It was evacuated as the Russian drone approached and no one was hurt. Very good safety system. Our train just had an evacuation warning." Bildt, Johnson and the other passengers had been in Kyiv for the Yalta European Strategy conference, an annual gathering of leaders and experts from politics, business, security and media.
Ukrzaliznytsia also said another train, carrying former CIA director David Petraeus, was still at Yahodyn station when the drone struck. The operator said it "constantly adjusts train schedules" to guard against strikes.
Johnson wrote on X: "I don't know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning." He added: "What we can say for sure is that this is the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day - even on civilian railways." Earlier on Sunday, border guards said a Russian drone hit a truck less than a mile from Polish territory, forcing the temporary closure of the Yahodyn-Dorohusk crossing. Overall, the incidents near the border underlined the continuing risk from drone strikes, even as diplomatic and civilian rail traffic moved through the area.
