Russian drone strikes passenger train near Polish border carrying Boris Johnson and David Petraeus

A Russian drone strike hit a stationary passenger train locomotive at Yahodyn station near the Polish border on September 13, 2026, just minutes after a diplomatic train carrying former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, and former CIA Director David Petraeus passed through. No casualties were reported as over 200 passengers had evacuated. Ukrainian and Polish officials condemned the strike as a direct threat to NATO and the EU, while Russia claimed it targeted military cargo routes.

Drone strike on border train

• ▪A Russian drone also struck the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing, hitting a lorry and a petrol station less than 1km from the Polish border
• ▪A Russian drone struck a stationary locomotive of a Kyiv-to-Warsaw passenger train at Yahodyn station near the Poland-Ukraine border at 9:28am on September 13, 2026
• ▪The drone strike on the Kyiv-to-Warsaw passenger train caused no casualties as more than 200 passengers had been evacuated from the train prior to the impact

Boris Johnson evacuation

• ▪A private diplomatic train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt crossed the Polish border at 7:42am on September 13, 2026, shortly before the drone strike
• ▪The diplomatic train carrying Boris Johnson departed earlier than planned due to a real-time schedule review prompted by the threat of Russian strikes
• ▪The diplomatic train also carried Günter Sautter, a foreign policy adviser to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, alongside security advisers from Britain, France, and Italy

David Petraeus at station

• ▪David Petraeus had been traveling on the diplomatic train with Boris Johnson and Carl Bildt after attending the 2026 annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy in Kyiv
• ▪Former CIA Director David Petraeus was at the Yahodyn station when the Russian drone struck the locomotive on September 13, 2026

Russian drone missile campaign

• ▪Russia launched overnight attacks across Ukraine involving more than 450 drones and missiles on September 13, 2026, killing at least six people and injuring over 40
• ▪The Russian Defence Ministry stated that its strikes targeted railway infrastructure in western Ukraine used to transport military cargo from European countries

Ukrainian official responses

• ▪Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Telegram that Ukrainians are fighting daily to prevent Russian strikes from spreading further into Europe
• ▪Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the border strikes as Russian President Vladimir Putin's terror knocking directly on the doors of the EU and NATO

Russian hybrid warfare tactics

• ▪European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that Europe faces an escalating campaign of hybrid warfare and threats from Russia
• ▪Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that intensifying Russian attacks could affect Polish territory and stated that Poland had received intelligence warnings of attempts to disrupt border crossings