A Russian drone struck a passenger train at Yahodyn railway station near the border with Poland on Sunday, just moments after a diplomatic delegation led by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt had departed the same location.
Ukrainian state rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia stated that the attack likely targeted the diplomatic train, which had intentionally left the station ahead of schedule following a security conference in Kyiv. The visiting officials, accompanied by security advisers from several European Union nations, were returning from the Yalta European Strategy annual gathering.
“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,” the railway company said in a statement on Telegram.
Bildt posted a video of the incident on X, noting that while his train had received an evacuation warning, the locomotive struck belonged to a different service that had arrived minutes later. He praised the railway’s safety systems, confirming that the second train had been evacuated before the drone approached and that no injuries were reported.
According to Ukrzaliznytsia, another train carrying former CIA Director David Petraeus remained at the station when the explosion occurred. There were no immediate reports of casualties on any of the trains involved.
Johnson also took to X to criticize the attack, describing it as a “random and senseless” act against civilian infrastructure. “I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning,” he wrote.
The incident compounded tensions at the border earlier on Sunday, when border guards reported that a Russian drone hit a truck less than a mile from Polish territory, forcing the temporary closure of the Yahodyn-Dorohusk crossing. Ukrzaliznytsia added that it constantly adjusts train schedules to mitigate the risk of such strikes.
Petraeus was on another train there too. Seems like every high-profile Western visitor is getting targeted near the border lately. What a dangerous precedent.
Did anyone confirm if the drone was actually shot down or just malfunctioned? The lack of technical details on the interception is suspicious.
It’s chilling that they were minutes away from being hit. The evacuation timing was incredibly close, literally seconds mattered here.