Russian drone hits Kyiv–Warsaw train two kilometres from Poland

This article was updated with the names of Western officials on board the train.

On the morning of 13 September a Russian UAV struck railway infrastructure near the Yahodyn–Dorohusk border crossing in Volyn region. The drone hit the locomotive of the Kyiv–Warsaw passenger train.

Ukrzaliznytsia deputy director for passenger transport Oleksandr Shevchenko confirmed the strike to Suspilne. There were no injuries or deaths. The operator’s monitoring team had warned the crew in time. At the moment of impact the train stood two kilometres from the Polish border.

Russian drones for the first time hit gas station & trucks in Yahodyn border crossing with Poland in my native Volyn Region in Western Ukraine. Trains near Polish border were also hit by Russian drones. There are many Russian drone strikes in other Western Ukraine regions. pic.twitter.com/YmDDNQOyr9
— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) September 13, 2026

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the attacks near the Ukrainian-Polish frontier were “not just a continuation of its attacks on Ukraine’s state borders. This is Putin’s terror knocking directly on the door of the EU and NATO. Russian barbarians are already at your gates, dear partners.”

A separate drone also struck a petrol station near the same checkpoint that morning.

This is a serious escalation. Ukraine’s main overland contacts with Europe still run by train. Strikes on the Kyiv–Warsaw service at the last station before Poland appear aimed at discouraging visitors, including high-level ones, by raising the perceived risk of using those routes.

The Yahodyn strike fits the pattern EUalive has already tracked. Days ago we reported Russia hitting the Starokozache–Tudora crossing with Moldova, another civilian gate that used to sit just outside the routine script, and warned that unofficial red lines keep vanishing. The same logic is now at work two kilometres from Poland: a drone on the locomotive of the Kyiv–Warsaw train is not only an attack on rolling stock, it is a message to visitors to stay away.

Moldova condemns a deadly strike on a Ukraine crossing – as unofficial red lines keep vanishing

We made that point after black smoke rose over St Sophia, when a Russian drone punched into the Security Service of Ukraine headquarters in central Kyiv in an obvious act of escalation, Hitting the last Ukrainian station before the EU does the same job on the rail route that still carries civilians, diplomats and officials between Kyiv and Europe.

Western officials, including Günther Sautter, one of the closest advisers to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, were on board the Kyiv-Warsaw train that came under attack by Russia on Sunday morning, September 13, according to Spiegel.