A Russian drone struck the engine of a Kyiv-Warsaw train two kilometres from the Yahodyn-Dorohusk railway border crossing on Sunday but no injuries were reported among the 206 passengers.
Ukrainian media outlets reported that the train in question was a service running between Kyiv and Warsaw. They shared a video purportedly showing the strike, in which passengers are seen fleeing a train as an explosion is seen and heard in the background.
🚨 BREAKING: Russian drone targeted a passenger train on the border with Poland.
"Russian barbarians are at your gate, dear partners. Act now: throw the full weight of your sanctions at Putin’s aggressive regime," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha wrote in response. pic.twitter.com/VsgQ2UGtPb
— UNITED24 Media (@United24media) September 13, 2026
According to Ukrainian sources the train crew had been warned by a group monitoring Russian aerial missile activity and were able to avoid any risk of casualties.
In a separate incident on the same railway line that morning a chartered train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and senior European officials was partially evacuated near the Polish border early on Sunday amid a Russian drone threat in the area.
Ukrainian state railways issued a statement on Sunday’s Russian attack.
“For the second day in a row, the enemy has been attacking the railway. Today in Volyn, two kilometres from the Polish border, the enemy attacked the engine of a passenger train,” the statement said.
The Ukrainian railways also confirmed that trains carrying diplomats had been present in the area.
“Shortly before the locomotive was hit on the border between Ukraine and Poland at the Yagodin station, a diplomatic train was present, carrying, among others, security advisors from several EU member states, as well as former European leaders, including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson,” it said in a statement, adding that “another train, which was at the Yagodin station at the time of the attack, carried former CIA Director David Petraeus.”
Johnson later wrote on X: “I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning. What we can say for sure is that this is the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day – even on civilian railways.”
Polish state-owned passenger train operator PKP said the attack occurred in Ukraine before the train was handed over to the company at the border.
Residents of the Polish border village of Dorohusk heard an explosion at around 8:30 a.m., local municipality mayor Wojciech Sawa told Polish state news agency PAP.
Earlier on the same morning, near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk road border crossing, a Russian drone struck a truck at a petrol station near the same border crossing causing a fire to spread to the station’s infrastructure and several vehicles.
🚨 BREAKING: Russian drones struck a gas station near the Yahodyn checkpoint on the Polish border, setting off a massive fire that engulfed parked cargo trucks.
Border guards suspended processing and sheltered visitors during the air alert. pic.twitter.com/SSUiXayBYS
— UNITED24 Media (@United24media) September 13, 2026
The spokesperson for Poland’s interior ministry said that no injuries had been reported on the Polish side of the border.
Poland’s Border Guards authority told the Polish Press Agency PAP that border checks at Polish-Ukrainian crossings had been suspended overnight due to Russian attacks on Ukraine.
Katerina Sergatskova, a journalist and entrepreneur who witnessed the attack, told the Kyiv Independent that Russian drones struck a gas station and a train engine near the Yahodyn border checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Polish border.
Following the attack, she and other passengers were left standing outside for several hours.
“We were told to evacuate immediately, but there was no shelter,” Sergatskova said. “We were simply told to move away from the train cars toward the lake.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha commented on the attack on social media.
“This is Putin’s terrorism ‘knocking’ directly on the doors of the EU and NATO. Russian barbarians are at your gates, dear partners,” Sybiha wrote.
Overnight attacks across Ukraine involving more than 450 Russian drones and missiles killed at least six people and injured more than 40. Ukraine’s air force said it had intercepted 405 drones and four missiles.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had targeted infrastructure in western Ukraine used to facilitate deliveries of military cargo from Europe.
Poland has for the past four and a half years been acting as the hub for military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine and considers itself particularly vulnerable for Russian retaliation for the part it has played in the conflict.
The strikes came amid a wider Russian assault on Ukraine involving hundreds of drones and attacks on civilian infrastructure across the country and they also underline the growing risks facing transport and civilian infrastructure in western Ukraine, including areas close to Nato member Poland.
On Sunday morning, the operational command of Poland’s armed forces confirmed that it had activated defence and reconnaissance systems in response to Russia’s overnight drone attacks on Ukraine, but that no violations of Polish airspace had been recorded.
Poland’s Government Security Centre (RCB) sent alerts overnight to residents in two provinces bordering Ukraine, while alarm sirens also went off in some areas right on the border.
In July a Russian missile entered Polish airspace crashing in the east of the country in an incident which Polish analysts claim was a test of Polish defences.
Critics argued that the test was not passed since the missile was not shot down during its six minute journey into Poland and there were problems with the issuing of alerts to the population.
Back in September last year around 20 Russian decoy drones entered Poland during an aerial assault on Ukraine. Some of them were shot down by fighter aircraft, raising criticism that the incident revealed Poland’s anti-drone defences were lacking.
The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk who leads the country’s centre-left government, warned on Sunday that intensifying Russian attacks in Ukraine in the coming weeks could affect Poland, as he chaired an emergency meeting after the Russian drone attacks near the border.
“The coming weeks and months will be a period of very intensive actions on the Russian side,” he said, adding Poland “cannot rule out that this escalation will also affect our territory”.
He added that Poland had been tipped off by its security services, and by intelligence agencies from allied countries, that an attack such as this was likely. “We knew that the Russian plan would include an attempt to disrupt, paralyse, and perhaps even destroy Ukrainian border crossings,” Tusk said.
Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski called the Russian attack “escalation” and Deputy defence minister Cezary Tomczyk said that the latest incidents emphasise why it is necessary to provide military support to Ukraine such as air defence missiles for Patriot batteries that Ukraine has asked for.
However, opposition politicians from Poland’s Conservative (PiS) and Confederation parties argue that Poland needs to purchase more missiles for its own Patriot batteries in case of attacks which PM Tusk has repeatedly argued Poland must expect in the coming months.
