A Russian drone struck a train locomotive at Ukraine’s Yahodyn station near the border with Poland on Sunday morning, shortly after a diplomatic train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European officials had departed. David Petraeus, the former director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, was aboard a nearby train when the attack occurred.
Train passengers evacuated after hearing drones
Petraeus said his train had passed through the Ukrainian customs checkpoint on its way to Poland when passengers heard drones overhead, before being evacuated and hearing a major explosion. The former US Army general added: “For those who have never been under fire, it was terrifying.”
Petraeus said images taken after the attack showed a Russian jet-powered drone had hit the locomotive of the nearby train. He said the train struck was not a military target, adding that another drone had hit a fuel station in the area. Ukraine’s state railway company suggested the diplomatic train may have been the drone’s intended target.
Diplomatic train left before the strike
He said he had travelled separately from Johnson on a civilian train, then returned to the train after the attack and reached Poland safely, adding that he was unaware of any casualties from the strike. The attack coincided with Russian strikes targeting railway facilities in central Ukraine.
Two border crossings with Moldova and Romania were also attacked earlier this month, in actions that the report said were aimed at disrupting Ukraine’s logistics services. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow’s aim was to “paralyse the economy and destroy people’s lives”. Petraeus described the attacks as part of a campaign to exhaust Ukraine’s population, saying they would not succeed in defeating the country.
