A passenger train near the Ukraine-Poland border was struck by a Russian drone shortly after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other European diplomats had traveled on the same route. The train, often used by foreign delegations returning from Kyiv, was targeted just two kilometers from the Polish border, as confirmed by Ukraine’s railway operator. Fortunately, there were no casualties.
Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden, mentioned that the attacked train was the one right after their own, which was evacuated without any injuries when the drone approached. He and other politicians were returning from a conference in Kyiv. The Ukrainian railway operator suggested that the Russian drone might have intended to target the diplomatic train, which had departed earlier than scheduled due to real-time adjustments in response to the ongoing threat of Russian strikes.
Boris Johnson, who was also onboard the train that left just before the attack, condemned the incident as “random and senseless.” Both Moscow and Kyiv have intensified long-distance strikes in recent weeks in an effort to shift the momentum in the conflict, given the largely static front line.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski described the increasing attacks by Russia near NATO’s doorstep as an escalation. Earlier on the same day, a truck close to the Ukraine-Poland border was also hit, leading to a temporary halt in operations at the Dorohusk-Yahodyn crossing point, according to border guards. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have targeted infrastructure facilitating military shipments from Europe in Western Ukraine.
Overnight, tensions persisted, with reports from the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region accusing Ukraine of striking fuel trucks near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Europe’s largest. The plant has been under Russian control since March 2022 and remains in close proximity to the front line. Ukrainian military officials did not immediately respond to the allegations.
In a separate incident, civilian and industrial targets in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, were reportedly hit by Ukrainian drones, resulting in casualties. The city is home to a major oil refinery that has been previously targeted. Ukrainian authorities, in turn, stated that they had conducted a strike on another refinery in the southern Krasnodar region.