A Russian drone hit the engine of a passenger train at Yahodyn in western Ukraine, 2 km from the Polish border, shortly after Boris Johnson and European security advisers had travelled the same line on another train. Ukrzaliznytsia, the state railway operator, said the strike may have been meant for that diplomatic service, while Russia said it had struck railway infrastructure. Passengers had been ordered off 15 minutes earlier and nobody was hurt.
Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine's state railway operator, said the drone that hit a locomotive at Yahodyn may have been meant for a diplomatic train rather than the Kyiv-Warsaw passenger service it struck. Yahodyn is a rail border crossing in the Volyn region of western Ukraine, about 2 km from Poland. Russia gave a different account and said it had hit railway infrastructure in western Ukraine. Ukrzaliznytsia said nobody on the train was injured.[1], [2]
Passengers were told to leave 15 minutes before the impact, Ukrzaliznytsia said, and the service had departed ahead of its timetable because the line lives under a constant threat of strikes. The engine took the blow and the carriages were clear. The strike fell inside a far larger night attack: Ukraine's air force counted 453 Shahed and Gerbera drones and S8000 Banderol missiles sent at the country, of which it said 405 drones and 6 missiles were brought down. Regional authorities reported at least 6 civilians killed and 43 injured across the country over the previous day, and a petrol station near the Yahodyn crossing was damaged.[1], [2]
Shortly before the drone arrived, Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister, and European security advisers had travelled that line on another train. Ukrzaliznytsia said David Petraeus, a former director of the CIA, the United States Central Intelligence Agency, was aboard another train at Yahodyn at the same time. Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, called the strike a blow at the door of the European Union and NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a description that rests on how close the impact fell to the frontier of both.[1], [2]
