A Russian drone struck a train near Yahodyn, western Ukraine, on Saturday — just kilometres from the Polish border and minutes after a separate train carrying former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and senior European security advisers had passed through. No casualties were reported. All passengers had been evacuated roughly 15 minutes before impact, after Ukrainian authorities detected the incoming threat. The drone destroyed the train's engine but left no one dead.

The near-miss has rattled European officials. Ukraine's state railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, stated directly that the diplomatic train was "quite possibly" the intended target. It had departed Yahodyn station earlier than scheduled because of what the company described as "constant threats of Russian strikes." Former CIA Director David Petraeus, who was at Yahodyn station aboard another train when the drone hit, told the New York Times the experience was "terrifying" and called it "the act of a truly barbaric leader trying to terrorize Ukrainian civilians.

" Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, also travelling back from a security conference in Kyiv, said passengers on his train were ordered to prepare for evacuation before being cleared to continue. His train reached the Polish border station at Dorohusk safely. Russia acknowledged striking railway infrastructure in western Ukraine but did not address claims that diplomats had been targeted. The strike landed just 2km inside Ukrainian territory — a detail that Polish and Ukrainian authorities both confirmed.

Saturday's attack is part of a wider and intensifying Russian campaign against Ukraine's transport network. This week alone, drones killed two people at a Ukraine-Moldova border crossing and a female conductor on a southern passenger train.