Russian strikes near Poland’s border hit a Warsaw-bound train in western Ukraine yesterday, narrowly missing a separate train carrying former British prime minister Boris Johnson and several European officials.
Ukraine’s rail operator said Mr Johnson and former US CIA director David Petraeus were travelling on two different trains near the time the locomotive was struck. Both men were in Kyiv for the annual Yalta European Strategy forum.
- Advertisement -
Speaking by telephone to the New York Times, Mr Petraeus said he heard Russian drones overhead before an explosion sent passengers into a hurried evacuation.
“For those who have not been under fire, this was terrifying… This is the act of a truly barbaric leader trying to terrorise Ukrainian civilians,” he said.
I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning. What we can say for sure is that this is the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day – even on civilian railways. So far Putin…
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 13, 2026
Mr Johnson, who was travelling aboard a separate train with several EU officials, denounced the strike in a post on X.
“I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning,” he wrote.
“What we can say for sure is that this is the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day – even on civilian railways.”
Boris Johnson condemned the Russian attack
Polish and Ukrainian authorities said the Kyiv-to-Warsaw passenger train was hit around 2km from the Polish border. No casualties were reported.
Poland has remained one of Kyiv’s most important allies. With Ukrainian airspace closed, rail links into the country have become a vital escape route from the war, including for refugees.
Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine’s state rail operator, confirmed the strike yesterday but did not disclose the precise distance between the officials and the damaged train.
“A diplomatic train was at Yagodyn station… among others, security advisers from several EU member states and former European leaders (were) on board, including former UK prime minister Boris Johnson,” the operator said.
“In another train that was at Yagodyn station at the very moment of the attack was former CIA director David Petraeus.”
Trump calls on Zelensky to halt attacks on Russian refineries
The attack came as US President Donald Trump urged Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to stop targeting Russian oil refineries, arguing that the strikes had contributed to a diesel shortage and saying “there are plenty of other targets”.
Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian refineries as part of efforts to damage Moscow’s war machine.
Russia launched drone strikes across western Ukraine yesterday, only days after US envoys travelled to Kyiv and Moscow in an attempt to restart negotiations aimed at ending the war.
Mr Zelensky accused Moscow of deliberately targeting the locomotive.
“It is precisely to prevent these strikes from spreading further into Europe that Ukrainian men and women fight every day, give their lives, and do not allow the aggression to expand,” he said.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk convened an emergency meeting in Warsaw after the strikes and warned that he expected Russia to intensify the conflict “in the coming weeks”.
He said: “We cannot exclude that the escalation will also affect our territory… I hope not.”
Russia claimed the target was “railway infrastructure used to transport military cargo” supplied by European countries.
Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be willing to meet Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in December
Escalation should lead allies to double support – foreign minister
Speaking in Kyiv, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the latest “escalation” should prompt allies to “double” their support for Ukraine.
“This was just a few hundred metres from the Polish border, this affects the safety of my countrymen,” Mr Sikorski said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said President Vladimir Putin viewed Russia as being “de facto” at war with Europe.
“Putin’s terror is literally knocking at the door of the European Union and NATO,” Mr Sybiga said.
Russian attacks killed at least two people yesterday in the frontline city of Kramatorsk.
Ukrainian officials said a second consecutive day of strikes on the southern port city of Odesa wounded 20 people, including two children.
At the same time, the Kremlin said negotiations involving Ukraine and the US could resume in October.
“We do not rule out such a possibility; we are talking about the foreseeable future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Russia’s Ria and Tass news agencies.
Several rounds of talks have ended without a breakthrough, while US-led efforts lost momentum during the war in the Middle East.
In an interview released on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said he would be prepared to meet Mr Putin at the G20 summit in Miami in December.
Mr Peskov, speaking in New Delhi on Saturday, dismissed that prospect as “impossible” and reiterated Moscow’s position that any such meeting could take place only in the Russian capital.
