Russian drone hits passenger train near the Polish border

Overnight and into Sunday morning, Russia launched a large-scale drone attack on Ukraine. Energy facilities, the state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia, businesses and residential buildings were hit. Odessa was also struck by missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the attack on X.

Train hit near the Polish border

In the same offensive, a fuel station in Yahodyn, near the border between Ukraine and Poland, was hit and caught fire. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said a fuel station and several trucks had burned near the border crossing.

A drone also hit a passenger train, again close to the border with Poland, a NATO member. The attack happened shortly after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other European diplomats had travelled on the same line. According to the Ukrainian rail operator, the train that was hit ran on a route frequently used by foreign delegations returning from Kyiv, and was attacked just two kilometres from the Polish border. No injuries were reported.

Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, who was returning by train from a conference in Kyiv with other political figures, wrote on X: "Non era il nostro treno, ma quello transitato pochi minuti dopo di noi al valico di frontiera. È stato evacuato mentre il drone si avvicinava e nessuno è rimasto ferito" (It was not our train, but the one that passed a few minutes after us at the border crossing. It was evacuated as the drone approached and no one was hurt). Ukrzaliznytsia said on Telegram that the drone's intended target may well have been the diplomatic train, which had left earlier than scheduled after the timetable was changed in real time because of the constant threat of Russian attacks.

With the front line largely static, Moscow and Kyiv have both stepped up long-range strikes in recent weeks in an attempt to shift the course of the war. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski described the rise in Russian attacks on NATO's doorstep as "an escalation". A significant share of the military and humanitarian aid reaching Kyiv passes through the border crossings with Poland.

On Sunday, Lithuania temporarily closed Vilnius airport and NATO scrambled at least one fighter jet after a possible drone sighting in Lithuanian airspace. The alert was lifted after Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre said the suspected drone had in fact been a flock of birds.