A Russian drone struck a passenger train just two kilometres from the Polish border on Sunday, minutes after a diplomatic train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and senior European security officials had passed through the area. No casualties were reported: Ukrainian rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said the 206 passengers on board the Kyiv-Warsaw service had been evacuated roughly 15 minutes before the locomotive was hit, after a drone was spotted approaching. The engine was decoupled from the rest of the train before impact.

Ukrzaliznytsia said the diplomatic train — carrying security advisers from several EU member states, former European leaders, and former CIA director David Petraeus — had been at Yahodyn station, in the far northwest of Ukraine, shortly before the strike. The operator concluded it was "quite possible" that the diplomatic train was the intended target, noting that it had departed earlier than scheduled due to ongoing threats. Petraeus, who described the incident as "terrifying," told the New York Times it was "the act of a truly barbaric leader trying to terrorize Ukrainian civilians." Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, who was on the same diplomatic train, said passengers were ordered to prepare to evacuate before being told they could continue; the train subsequently crossed safely into Poland at the border station of Dorohusk. Johnson, writing on X, said he could not understand the "warped logic" behind what he called a "random and senseless" attack.

Poland and Ukraine swiftly condemned the strike as deliberate escalation. Polish President Donald Tusk, speaking after an emergency security meeting, warned that Russian activity was creeping dangerously close to NATO's eastern frontier and said the coming weeks and months would see "very intense" Russian action. He did not rule out that the escalation could reach Polish territory, calling such a scenario a "catastrophe" that he hoped to avoid but could not exclude. Poland's Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, speaking in Kyiv, said the strike had occurred "just a few hundred metres from the Polish border" and called on allies to double their support for Ukraine. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha warned European neighbours that "Putin's terror is knocking directly on the doors of the EU and NATO."

The attack fits a broader pattern of intensifying Russian strikes on Ukraine's transport and energy infrastructure. Over the weekend alone, more than a thousand Russian drones were launched across the country. In recent weeks, Russia has repeatedly targeted railway depots, border crossings, and fuel stations — including sites near the crossings with Romania and Moldova. A conductor was killed in a drone strike on a passenger train in southern Ukraine earlier this week, and six Ukrzaliznytsia employees died when a depot in Kyiv was hit earlier this month. Ukraine's rail network, which has become the primary mode of transport for millions since all air travel was suspended at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, has been systematically targeted. Tusk specifically flagged the growing threat from jet-powered long-range strike drones, which are faster and harder to intercept than older propeller-driven models. The Yahodyn-Dorohusk crossing, where Sunday's strike occurred, is one of Ukraine's busiest border points and a critical conduit for Western military and humanitarian aid.