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A Russian drone struck the engine of a Kyiv-bound passenger train in Ukraine’s Volyn region early on September 13, with the impact occurring two kilometres from the Polish border near the Yahodyn crossing, according to the state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia. Crew members received advance warning of the approaching threat and fully evacuated the carriages, resulting in no reported casualties from the strike itself. The operator noted that services on the line resumed later in the day although with significant delays, as the incident formed part of a second consecutive day of Russian attacks on railway infrastructure across the country. Ukrainian authorities also reported a separate strike on a petrol station close to the border that ignited several trucks and triggered a large fire, according to the Kyiv Post.
Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson was among a group of Western officials who had passed along the same line hours earlier aboard a chartered train returning from the Yalta European Strategy security conference in Kyiv, the Financial Times reported. The delegation included Günter Sautter, a top security adviser to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, along with counterparts from the UK, France and Italy as well as German lawmakers, diplomats and academics, according to Der Spiegel via Ukrainska Pravda. Their train halted near the border around 5am local time as drone threats materialised in the area, prompting a partial evacuation of passengers before an all-clear was issued, with all remaining unharmed. Swedish former prime minister Carl Bildt, who crossed the border on a separate service shortly before the strike, wrote on X that the safety protocols had functioned effectively.
Johnson condemned the attack in a post on X, stating “I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning” before asking “When are we going to give them the air defences they need?” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the border-region strikes as “Putin’s terror knocking directly on the doors of the EU and NATO,” according to the Guardian. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that a Russian drone had detonated 800 metres from Polish territory, prompting Warsaw to scramble fighter jets and activate air-raid alarms in eastern regions, Reuters reported.
Russia’s defence ministry stated that its forces had targeted infrastructure facilitating the movement of military cargo from Europe into Ukraine, a claim carried by multiple outlets including Reuters. The overnight barrage formed part of one of Moscow’s largest recent drone and missile campaigns, with the Ukrainian air force reporting more than 450 aerial vehicles launched across the country and 405 intercepted, the Guardian noted. At least six people were killed and more than 40 injured in strikes elsewhere in Ukraine, while western regions that are normally quieter experienced particularly heavy activity on this occasion.
The incident marks an escalation in Russian targeting of Ukraine’s western rail network, which has seen repeated assaults in recent weeks including a Kyiv depot strike earlier this month that killed six Ukrzaliznytsia employees, according to the BBC. Railway operator data cited across reports indicate that such attacks aim to disrupt both civilian transit and the flow of Western-supplied equipment that enters primarily through Polish border crossings. The Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint briefly suspended operations after the strikes but resumed processing once the immediate threat subsided, Polish border guards told Reuters.
The rail line in question has served as a primary route for numerous high-profile visitors to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began, including multiple previous trips by Johnson himself as well as Finnish President Alexander Stubb, the Financial Times reported. Security officials attending the Kyiv conference had been discussing potential peace negotiations with Russia alongside representatives from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government. Ukrainian rail authorities emphasised that preemptive monitoring systems had prevented loss of life in this instance despite the proximity to NATO territory.
