A Russian drone struck railway infrastructure near Ukraine’s border with Poland on Sunday, Sept. 13, narrowly missing trains carrying several prominent Western political and security figures.
Ukraine’s state railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, said a diplomatic train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt and security advisers from several European Union countries had departed the Yahodyn station ahead of schedule shortly before the attack. The group was returning from the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv.
A separate train carrying former CIA director and retired U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus was still at Yahodyn when the drone struck.
The attack hit a locomotive near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing, approximately two kilometers from Poland, a NATO and European Union member. No casualties were reported. Railway personnel had detected the approaching drone and issued an evacuation warning before the strike.
Ukrzaliznytsia said it was “highly probable” that the diplomatic train was the drone’s intended target, noting that the train had departed earlier than scheduled as part of security precautions routinely used because of the threat of Russian attacks. There has been no independent confirmation that the dignitaries were deliberately targeted.
Bildt later said his train had passed through the area only minutes before the strike and praised Ukrainian railway personnel for their evacuation procedures.
The incident occurred amid a wider wave of Russian drone and missile attacks across Ukraine. A separate drone also struck a truck less than a mile from Polish territory, temporarily disrupting operations at the border crossing.
Russia said its attacks in western Ukraine were directed at railway infrastructure used to transport military cargo from Europe. Polish officials described the strikes so close to their border as a significant escalation.
The attack also highlights the increasing security risks facing civilian transportation infrastructure far from Ukraine’s eastern front lines and immediately adjacent to NATO territory.