KYIV — A Russian drone has hit a stationary Ukrainian train shortly after former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and top European security officials had passed through the railway station.Russia launched two drone strikes on western Ukraine, close to its border with NATO member Poland, Ukrainian and Polish authorities said on Sunday.One of the drones hit a locomotive of a passenger train at the Yahodyn railway station in the Volyn region, some 2 kilometers from the border crossing.No casualties were reported after the strike, which hit the train’s engine. All the passengers were evacuated, Ukrainian authorities said.”The monitoring team gave the train crew advanced warning, and thanks to that, no one was injured,” Ukrainian railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said in an online post.Separately, Poland’s PKP Intercity confirmed that they have taken control of the affected train following the attack.”The train was carrying 206 people. There are no Polish citizens among the passengers,” the operator said online. “After completing customs clearance, it will continue its journey towards Warsaw.”Johnson and other European national security advisers, including the UK’s Jonathan Powell, had passed along the same line on a different train on their way back from a conference in Kyiv.Russia said it had struck “railway infrastructure” in western Ukraine, but Ukraine’s state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said that “quite possibly, the target of this drone could have been the diplomatic train”.Former CIA chief David Petraeus, who had been on board another train at Yahodyn station at the time of the strike, said the incident was “terrifying”.In an interview with the New York Times, Petraeus said: “This is the act of a truly barbaric leader trying to terrorize Ukrainian civilians.”In a statement, Ukrzaliznytsia said the train “had left the station earlier than expected because of the timetable change… due to constant threats of Russian strikes”.It also said an evacuation order for passengers on the hit train had been given “just 15 minutes” before the strike by a Russian jet-propelled drone.Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, who had also attended the conference in Kyiv, said passengers on board his train had been told to prepare for evacuation before subsequently being allowed to continue their journey.”On the train I was on, we received an order to prepare for evacuation after it had stopped. But after a number of minutes we were informed that it was clear and we could proceed,” he said.That train then safely arrived at Poland’s border station in Dorohusk.Some reports have suggested Bildt was on the same train as Johnson, but the former UK prime minister has not confirmed any details.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 said this was “the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day — even on civilian railways” and urged Kyiv’s allies to urgently provide Ukrainians “the air defences they need”.Ukraine has made repeated pleas to its allies, particularly the US, to provide more interceptors to defend against daily Russian attacks that increasingly use fast-moving ballistic missiles and jet-propelled drones.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the “barbaric strikes” at the Ukraine-Poland border in Yahodyn amounted to “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s terror ‘knocking’ directly on the doors of the EU and Nato” and renewed calls for more sanctions on Moscow.”Putin needs to understand that his barbarism will be met with decisive action that increases the cost of war for him to an unacceptable level. This is the only way to stop him,” he said.In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk held an emergency meeting to discuss the latest developments.”The escalation of the actions from the Russian side is becoming a reality, and they are getting closer and closer to our border.”Johnson and other top European security advisers were on their way back from the Yalta European Strategy (YES) conference in Kyiv — an annual event that brings together leaders and experts from politics, business, security and mass media.
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