Russia continued striking civilian and critical infrastructure across Ukraine on Sunday after bombing multiple cities throughout the weekend, causing further casualties and bringing Russian attacks increasingly close to NATO territory.
A Russian drone struck the locomotive of a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train at Yahodyn in the Volyn region, just two kilometres from the Polish border. The passengers had been evacuated in advance and no casualties were reported. Russia claimed that it had targeted railway infrastructure used to transport military cargo from Europe.
Shortly before the attack, a diplomatic train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt and other European security officials had passed through Yahodyn station. Ukrainian Railways said it was possible that the diplomatic train had been the intended target after it departed earlier than scheduled because of the continuing threat of Russian attacks. Former CIA Director David Petraeus was travelling on another train at the station around the time of the strike.
This is not the first time that Russia has targeted passenger trains Ukraine.
Boris Johnson had been returning from the Yalta European Strategy annual meeting in Kyiv, held on 11 and 12 September, which brought together hundreds of politicians, diplomats, military officials and security experts from across Europe and other countries.
Other Russian airstrikes on Sunday took place in Odesa and Kramatorsk.
Following the attack, Johnson renewed his call for Britain and Europe to provide Ukraine with additional air-defence systems and transfer frozen Russian assets to Kyiv.
“When are we going to give them the air defences they need? Why won’t we unfreeze Putin’s cash and give it to Ukraine?” Johnson said, referring to more than €140 billion in frozen Russian assets held in Belgium and billions more held in Britain.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski described the attacks near Poland as an escalation and called on Ukraine’s allies to double their support, noting that the strikes were now taking place within kilometres of Polish territory.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha warned that “Putin’s terror” was now knocking directly on the doors of the European Union and NATO.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk convened an emergency security meeting following the attacks and warned that Russia’s escalation was moving increasingly close to Poland.
“The coming weeks and months will be a period of very intensive actions on the Russian side,” Premier Tusk said, adding that Poland “cannot rule out that this escalation will also affect our territory.”
Newsroom
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