A Russian drone struck a train at Yahodyn station near Ukraine’s border with Poland shortly after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and senior European security officials had travelled along the same railway line, Ukrainian authorities said.
No casualties were reported in the attack, which damaged the train’s engine. Russia said it had targeted railway infrastructure in western Ukraine. Polish authorities said the drone struck about 2km from the border.
Ukraine’s state railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, said it detected a jet-propelled drone and ordered passengers to evacuate 15 minutes before the strike. The company said the train carrying Johnson and other officials had previously been at Yahodyn and had left earlier than planned after a timetable adjustment.
Ukrzaliznytsia said it was possible that the intended target had been the diplomatic train, while stressing that it had departed the station earlier than expected because of continuing threats of Russian attacks. It also said former CIA director David Petraeus was aboard a separate train at Yahodyn when the drone struck.
Johnson had been returning from a conference in Kyiv with senior European security advisers, including Jonathan Powell, the UK’s national security adviser. He questioned why the locomotive had been struck and called for Ukraine to receive more air-defence systems.
Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, another participant at the Kyiv conference, said passengers on his train had initially been instructed to prepare for an evacuation after it stopped. He said they were later told it was safe to continue their journey.
Calls for stronger response
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the strikes near the Polish border as Russia bringing its actions directly to the doorstep of the European Union and Nato. He renewed his call for additional sanctions against Moscow, saying the cost of the war for Russia needed to rise.
Russia has carried out several attacks on Ukrainian railways, depots and transport facilities in recent months. Earlier in September, six Ukrzaliznytsia employees were killed in a strike on a depot in Kyiv, while a conductor died in a drone attack on a passenger train in southern Ukraine. In January, five people were killed in an attack on a crowded passenger train in the Kharkiv region, according to the source report.
Ukraine’s rail network has become a major means of transport for millions of people because air travel has been suspended since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Source: BBC News
