Arabic version: مسيّرة روسية تصيب قطاراً قرب الحدود البولندية

According to BBC News, a Russian drone hit a train near the Ukraine-Poland border shortly after former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European security officials travelled along the same rail line after a conference in Kyiv.

No casualties were reported in the strike at Yahodyn, which hit the train’s engine, Ukrainian authorities said. Passengers had been evacuated. Ukraine’s state railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, said an evacuation order had been issued 15 minutes before the strike by a Russian jet-propelled drone.

Russia said it had struck “railway infrastructure” in western Ukraine. Ukrzaliznytsia said the diplomatic train could quite possibly have been the drone’s target, adding that the train had left the station earlier than expected after a timetable change prompted by constant threats of Russian strikes.

Johnson and other national security advisers, including the UK’s Jonathan Powell, were returning from the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv. Ukrzaliznytsia also said former CIA chief David Petraeus was on another train at Yahodyn station during the attack. Ukrainian and Polish authorities said the drone struck 2km from the Polish border.

Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said passengers on his train were told to prepare for evacuation before being cleared to continue to Dorohusk, Poland. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk held an emergency meeting, while Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for more sanctions on Moscow. Russia has recently carried out attacks on Ukrainian trains, depots and other transport facilities.