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Agence France-Presse

Poland and Ukraine on Sunday denounced Russian strikes close to the Polish border, including on a Warsaw-bound train and near a frontier checkpoint – as an “escalation” in the war.
Ukraine’s rail operator said former British prime minister Boris Johnson and ex-US CIA director David Petraeus were at a border railway station nearby around the time the train was hit.
But the strikes came as US President Donald Trump called on Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to halt attacks on Russian refineries, saying it was causing a shortage of diesel fuel and “there are plenty of other targets”.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian oil refineries in a bid to hurt Russia’s war effort.
Russia attacked western Ukraine with drones Sunday, just days after US envoys visited Kyiv and Moscow in a bid to revive talks to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II. European nations are meanwhile worried by what they say is increased Russian-orchestrated sabotage acts on their soil.
Poland and Ukraine said a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train was struck just 2km (1.2 miles) from the Polish border, but reported no casualties.

This wasn’t our train, but the one just minutes after us by the 🇵🇱 border crossing. It was evacuated as the 🇷🇺 drone approached and no one was hurt. Very good safety system. Our train just had an evacuation warning but could proceed to Dorohusk. The 🇷🇺 attacks against 🇺🇦 are intensifying. https://t.co/SmaZX2oz42
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) September 13, 2026

“Shortly before the locomotive was hit at the Ukrainian-Polish border, a diplomatic train was at Yagodyn station. There were, among others, security advisers from several EU member states and former European leaders on board, including former UK prime minister Boris Johnson,” said the Ukrzaliznytsia rail operator.
“In another train that was at Yagodyn station at the very moment of the attack was former CIA director David Petraeus,” it added. The operator did not say how far the officials were from the train attacked.
The group had attended a conference in Kyiv the day before. Western politicians travelling to Kyiv rely on the rail link from Poland to Ukraine as the country’s airspace is closed.
Johnson said the Russian attack was yet another example of how Russia is conducting itself in this war.
“I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning,” Johnson wrote on X. “What we can say for sure is that this is the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day.”
He did not comment on reports that he had been on another train near the attack.

Zelensky said Moscow had “deliberately” struck the locomotive.
“It is precisely to prevent these strikes from spreading further into Europe that Ukrainian men and women fight every day, give their lives, and do not allow the aggression to expand,” Zelensky said.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s main allies and, with Ukrainian airspace closed, trains to Poland have been one of the main routes out of the war-torn country, used by refugees.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk chaired an emergency meeting in Warsaw following the strikes, warning he expected Russia to escalate the war “in the coming weeks”. He added: “We cannot exclude that the escalation will also affect our territory … I hope not”.
Russia said it had hit “railway infrastructure used to transport military cargo” from European countries.
Speaking in Kyiv, Poland’s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the “escalation” should lead allies to “double” their support for Ukraine.
“This was just a few hundred metres from the Polish border, this affects the safety of my countrymen,” Sikorski said.
“I understand that nobody died this morning in that particular attack, but it could easily have happened.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said President Vladimir Putin considered Russia was “de facto” at war with Europe.
“Europe may consider, or reassure itself, that it is not at war with Russia, but Russia does not see it that way. De facto, it is already at war with the Euro-Atlantic space, carrying out various hostile actions,” Sybiga said.
“Putin’s terror is literally knocking at the door of the European Union and Nato.”
Russian attacks killed at least two people on Sunday in the frontline city of Kramatorsk.
Twenty people, including two children, were also wounded in a second day of attacks on the southern port city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, said negotiations with Ukraine and the United States on the war could take place in October.
“We do not rule out such a possibility; we are talking about the foreseeable future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, cited by Russia’s Ria and Tass news agencies.
Several rounds of negotiations have failed, while US-led efforts stalled during the Middle East war.
In an interview released on Saturday, Zelensky said he would be willing to meet Putin at the G20 summit in Miami in December.
But Peskov said that was “impossible”, speaking in New Delhi on Saturday, repeating Moscow’s demand that a meeting could only take place in the Russian capital.
Putin has repeatedly rejected offers for face-to-face talks with Zelensky aimed at ending the conflict and repeatedly said Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine.
Additional reporting by dpa


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US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Ukraine conflict in a phone call. Photo: AFP

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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin welcomes Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow on Saturday. Photo: Sputnik via TNS

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomes Steve Witkoff Jared Kushner in Kyiv on Sunday. Photo: AFP

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A residential building in Kyiv damaged by a Russian drone strike. Photo: Reuters

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Drone attack at Ukraine station 2km from the Polish frontier occurred shortly after visitors – including Boris Johnson – passed through


Drone attack at Ukraine station 2km from the Polish frontier occurred shortly after visitors – including Boris Johnson – passed through.


Poland and Ukraine denounce train strike on route used by foreign dignitaries

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Drone attack at Ukraine station 2km from the Polish frontier occurred shortly after visitors – including Boris Johnson – passed through

Drone attack at Ukraine station 2km from the Polish frontier occurred shortly after visitors – including Boris Johnson – passed through