Russian drone strikes passenger train near Polish border in Ukraine

A Russian drone struck a passenger train locomotive in western Ukraine on Sunday, September 13, 2026, just minutes after a separate chartered train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other senior European officials passed through the same corridor near the Polish border. The incident, part of a larger overnight Russian air offensive, heightened tensions over the conflict's proximity to NATO territory. Ukraine's state rail operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, reported the drone hit the locomotive of a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train carrying 206 people approximately two kilometers from the Polish border in the Volyn region. The operator stated that railway threat-monitoring teams detected the danger before the strike, allowing for an evacuation. No injuries were reported on the struck train. The chartered train was carrying Johnson, who was returning from the Yalta European Strategy security conference in Kyiv, along with Günter Sautter, the foreign and security policy adviser to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, security advisers from the U.K., France, and Italy, and German MPs and diplomats were also aboard.