Ukraine says passenger train headed to Warsaw hit by Russian drone

• A passenger train travelling from Kyiv to Warsaw was hit by a Russian drone near the Poland-Ukraine border, causing delays but no injuries, as confirmed by Ukraine’s railway operator.
• Ukraine's foreign minister called the strike "Putin’s terror ‘knocking’ directly on the doors of the EU and NATO" and urged Europe to increase sanctions against Russia.
• The incident marks an escalation of Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure near NATO territory, with additional attacks on railways and a temporary NATO air response in Lithuania.

KYIV – The locomotive of a passenger train travelling from Kyiv to Warsaw was hit by a Russian drone just kilometres from the Polish border on the morning of Sept 13, Ukraine’s foreign minister said, as Moscow’s air strikes push closer to NATO territory. 

“This is Putin’s terror ‘knocking’ directly on the doors of the EU and NATO,” Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X, calling for Europe to increase sanctions against Russia.  

Ukraine’s state railway operator confirmed a strike on a train in Volyn, about 2km from the Ukraine-Poland border in north-western Ukraine. The Russian authorities have not yet commented. 

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said there was no violation of the border but called the incident an “escalation” by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The drones involved in the incident were Geran-5 jet-powered drones, the Polish authorities said. 

Kremlin forces “struck a passenger train locomotive,” the railway company Ukrzaliznytsia said on Telegram. “The monitoring group warned the train crew about the threat in advance, thanks to which no one was injured.”

The train, which had 208 people aboard, will continue on to Poland after a delay at the border of about six hours, the Polish railways said. 

Ukrzaliznytsia said the Sept 13 strike was the second this weekend. Sybiha late on Sept 12 posted images of railway facilities struck in Lutsk in north-western Ukraine and Fastiv, south-west of Kyiv. 

“Unable to achieve its goals on the battlefield, Russia attempts to make the entire territory of Ukraine a battlefield and turns to systematic attacks against civilians, trains, and the infrastructure that keeps the country moving,” he said. 

Images on social media also showed a large fire at a petrol filling station close to the border crossing between Yahodyn in Ukraine and Dorohusk in Poland. 

Margus Tsahkna, Estonia’s foreign affairs minister, said on X that members of his team had been “stuck at this very border crossing, unable to leave Ukraine because of the Russian drone threat”.

Separately on Sept 13, Vilnius airport was shut down for a time as NATO scrambled fighter jets in response to a possible drone sighting in Lithuanian airspace, Reuters reported. BLOOMBERG