# A drone hit a train on the EU's doorstep > Boris Johnson and a former CIA chief had just crossed the border when a Russian drone wrecked a locomotive metres from Poland. - Title: A drone hit a train on the EU's doorstep · the Guardian - Summary: Boris Johnson and a former CIA chief had just crossed the border when a Russian drone wrecked a locomotive metres from Poland. Russia is now striking… - Keywords: ukraine, russia, poland, drones, nato, news, world, drone, hit, train, EU's, doorstep - Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/13/russian-drone-hits-kyiv-warsaw-passenger-train-polish-border - Published: 2026-09-13T17:43:03+00:00 - Read time: 2 min - Topics: ukraine, russia, poland, drones, nato, news, world ## A locomotive in flames A Russian drone struck a train engine near the Poland-Ukraine border on Sunday morning. Firefighters fought the blaze on a stationary carriage a short distance from EU soil. ## Who had just passed through Ukrainian Railways said a train carrying Boris Johnson, former CIA director David Petraeus and several European security advisers had crossed into Poland shortly before the strike. ## The schedule that moved The rail operator said the diplomatic train left earlier than planned, part of a live reshuffling of timetables to dodge Russian strikes. It thinks that train may have been the intended target. > It is quite likely that the target of this Russian drone could also have been the diplomatic train ## 450 drones in one night Overnight attacks across Ukraine used more than 450 drones and missiles, killing at least six people and injuring over 40. Ukraine's air force intercepted 405 drones and four missiles. ## The quiet west got loud Western Ukraine, usually far calmer than Kyiv or the eastern front, took the worst of it. A lorry less than a kilometre from the Dorohusk-Yahodyn crossing was hit too. ## Told to run for the bushes Passengers were evacuated three times over ten hours at the border. Railway staff sent them to hide in bushes by a lake, and one witness called the response timely and disciplined. > On the third evacuation a missile came over and totalled a locomotive in front of our train ## A route that had never been hit A mother and her eight-year-old son had ridden Warsaw to Kyiv monthly since 2022 without a single evacuation. Passengers on board read this as something new. > This is clearly an escalation by Putin and the Russians. ## Knocking on NATO's door Foreign minister Andrii Sybiha framed the strikes as a message to Europe, not just an attack on Ukraine's borders. Air-raid warnings sounded in Poland. > Russian barbarians are at your gate, dear partners ## Warsaw saw it coming Donald Tusk chaired an emergency meeting and said Polish and allied intelligence had warned that Russia would try to paralyse Ukrainian border crossings. He cannot rule out Polish territory being hit. > The coming weeks and months will be a period of very intensive actions on the Russian side ## Moscow's version Russia's defence ministry said it hit railway infrastructure in western Ukraine used to move military cargo from European countries. That infrastructure is also how civilians get in and out. ## Trump's note on diesel The US president told Zelenskyy to stop hitting Russian diesel supplies because it was causing shortages. He blamed the war, not US action in the Middle East, for the squeeze. > Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel, because he's causing a shortage of diesel ## Key takeaway Russia is now striking Ukraine's western border crossings, the lifeline that carries Western supplies in, and Poland says the escalation could reach its own territory next.