A Russian drone has hit a train near the Ukraine-Poland border shortly after former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and top European security officials had passed through.
No casualties were reported after the Russian strike at Yahodyn, which hit the train’s engine. All the passengers had been evacuated, Ukrainian authorities said. Russia said it struck “railway infrastructure” in western Ukraine.
Johnson and some of Europe’s most senior security advisers, including the UK’s Jonathan Powell, had passed along the same line on their way back from a conference in the capital, Kyiv.
The former PM said “I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning” and asked “When are we going to give them the air defences they need?”
Ukraine’s state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said a jet-propelled drone had been detected and an evacuation order had been given 15 minutes before the strike.
It confirmed the train carrying Johnson and others had earlier been at Yahodyn station – and said a decision had been made for it to depart earlier than scheduled.
“Quite possibly, the target of this drone could have been the diplomatic train, which had left the station earlier than expected because of the timetable change… due to constant threats of Russian strikes,” Ukrzaliznytsia said.
The railway authority also said former CIA chief David Petraeus had been on board another train at Yahodyn station at the time of the drone strike.
The Polish authorities said a Russian drone had struck 2km from the Polish border.
Former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, who had also attended the conference in Kyiv, told the passengers on board his train had been told to prepare for evacuation before subsequently being allowed to porcedd with their journey.
“On the train I was on we received order to prepare evacuation after it had stopped. But after a number of minutes we were informed that it was clear and we could proceed,” he said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the “barbaric strikes” at the Ukraine-Poland border in Yahodyn amounted to “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.