Russian drone strikes Ukrainian train minutes after Boris Johnson passes through

A Russian drone has struck a train engine at a Ukrainian station near the Polish border, minutes after a diplomatic train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and senior European officials passed through.

The strike occurred on Sunday at Yahodyn station, just two kilometres from Poland. Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said the diplomatic train, which was bringing Johnson and other delegates back from a security conference in Kyiv, had departed earlier than planned because of real-time schedule adjustments made in response to constant Russian threats.

The railway operator suggested that the diplomatic train may have been the drone's intended target.

No casualties were reported. Passengers on the targeted civilian train were ordered to evacuate into nearby woods just 15 minutes before a Russian jet-propelled drone hit the stationary locomotive. A second train carrying former CIA Director David Petraeus was still at Yahodyn station when the strike occurred, but was undamaged.

Carl Bildt, the former Swedish Prime Minister who was also travelling on the route, said passengers on his train were ordered to prepare for evacuation when the drone approached, before being cleared to proceed. He later posted a video of the rising smoke, writing on social media: "This wasn’t our train, but the one just minutes after us."

The route is a vital link for foreign dignitaries visiting Kyiv, as Ukraine’s airspace has been closed to commercial aviation since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.

Johnson condemned the strike, questioning the "warped logic" behind targeting a stationary civilian train on the border. "What we can say for sure is that this is the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day," he wrote on social media, calling on Kyiv’s allies to provide more air defence systems.

The attack was part of a larger Russian bombardment on Sunday involving more than 450 drones and missiles across Ukraine. Less than a kilometre from the same border crossing, another Russian drone struck a truck, forcing the temporary closure of the busy Dorohusk-Yahodyn checkpoint.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha warned that the border strikes were "Putin’s terror knocking directly on the doors of the EU and Nato," urging Western allies to increase sanctions on Moscow.

In Warsaw, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk convened an emergency meeting. He revealed that Polish and allied intelligence agencies had warned that Moscow was planning to disrupt and paralyse Ukrainian border crossings. "The escalation of the actions from the Russian side is becoming a reality, and they are getting closer and closer to our border," Tusk said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed it had launched strikes in western Ukraine, but claimed it was targeting railway infrastructure used to transport Western military cargo.

The incident follows a pattern of intensifying Russian attacks on Ukraine’s transport network. In recent weeks, Russian strikes have killed a female conductor on a passenger train in southern Ukraine and six railway employees at a depot in Kyiv.