Russia strikes Ukrainian train near Poland border minutes after Boris Johnson, European leaders pass through
A Russian drone struck a passenger train near Ukraine’s border with Nato member Poland on Sunday, narrowly missing a train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other European politicians that had travelled along the same route minutes earlier.The passenger train was hit about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) from the Polish border, according to Ukraine’s railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia. No casualties were reported.The route is frequently used by foreign delegations travelling between Kyiv and Europe. Johnson and other European politicians had been travelling on a diplomatic train along the same line after attending a conference in Kyiv.“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,” Carl Bildt, former Sweden’s Prime Minister said on X.Ukrzaliznytsia said the diplomatic train had departed earlier than scheduled after railway timetables were adjusted in real time because of the continuing threat of Russian strikes.“It is entirely possible that the Russian drone’s intended target was the diplomatic train, which departed the station earlier than scheduled after train timetables were adjusted in real time because of the constant threat of Russian strikes,” the railway operator said on Telegram.Johnson, who was also travelling on the train that left the station shortly before the strike, condemned the attack as “random and senseless” in a post on Instagram.The strike took place amid an intensification of long-range attacks by both Russia and Ukraine as fighting along much of the front line remains largely static.Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski described Russia’s increasing attacks near NATO territory as “an escalation.”Earlier on Sunday, a truck less than 1 kilometre from Ukraine’s border with Poland was also struck. The incident briefly forced the Dorohusk-Yahodyn border crossing to halt operations, according to Polish border guards.Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had targeted infrastructure used to facilitate military cargo shipments from Europe into western Ukraine.Russia has increasingly targeted Ukrainian border crossings and infrastructure near its Western allies in recent weeks, as both sides intensify attacks on economic and logistical infrastructure more than four years into Moscow’s invasion.
Russia reports strike near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Elsewhere, overnight attacks continued across Ukraine and Russia.In the Russian-controlled part of southeastern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, the head of Russia’s state nuclear energy company Rosatom accused Ukraine of striking fuel trucks near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Europe’s largest nuclear plant.The Zaporizhzhia facility has been under Russian control since March 2022 and remains close to the front line. A Ukrainian military spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.In Russia, the mayor of Nizhnekamsk in the Volga River region of Tatarstan said “civilian and industrial” targets in the city had been struck by Ukrainian drones, killing at least two people and injuring several others.Mayor Radmir Belyaev did not specify which targets were hit. Nizhnekamsk is home to a major oil refinery that has previously been targeted.Ukrainian authorities did not immediately comment on the reported strike in Nizhnekamsk but said their forces had struck another refinery in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region.
