Senior European officials said a Russian drone attack on a Ukrainian passenger train at the Polish border yesterday was an escalation meant to frighten Europe into reducing support for Ukraine.
The drone struck the locomotive of an idle train at Yahodyn station at the border crossing with Poland after passengers were evacuated. No injuries were reported.
Minutes earlier, a diplomatic train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt and security figures from several European Union countries left the station ahead of schedule after incoming Russian drones were detected.
Another train at Yahodyn station at the time of the attack carried former US Army General and CIA director David Petraeus.
The Western dignitaries were on their way back from a security conference in Kyiv.
With flights to Ukraine halted since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia has run special trains for foreign diplomats and VIPs.
Whether Russia intended to kill European diplomats is unclear but the unprecedented provocation clearly risked that.
Businesspeople and civilians also have relied on trains to enter and leave Ukraine, raising the question of whether Moscow now might target cross-border trains generally.
Russia up to yesterday avoided attacks on passenger trains running between Kyiv and the European Union.
But Ukrainian trains in the interior of government-controlled territory increasingly have been targeted. They now often are evacuated due to drone threats, undermining a critical mode of transportation in wartime Ukraine.
Nothing can be taken for granted given this summer’s sharp escalation in the air war, which has seen daily attacks on Kyiv and other cities with jet-powered drones and missiles.
Ukraine should be avoided entirely.
