Senior Western figures at Ukraine station before Russia train strike, rail operator says

Ukraine’s state railway operator said top Western figures – including former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and ex-CIA director David Petraeus – were at a west Ukrainian railway station just before Russia struck a Warsaw-bound train there.

“Shortly before the locomotive was hit at the Ukrainian-Polish border, a diplomatic train was at Yagodyn station,” Ukraine’s rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said in a statement.

“There were, among others, security advisers from several EU member states and former European leaders on board, including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In another train that was at Yagodyn station at the very moment of the attack was former CIA Director David Petraeus.”

“Putin escalates,” Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski wrote on social media. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk convened a crisis team for the afternoon. Western politicians travelling to Kyiv rely on the rail link from Poland to Ukraine as the country’s airspace is closed.

Passengers were evacuated in time and nobody was harmed, Ukrainian Railways said on Sunday.

Polish railway operator PKP said it had taken over the train from the Ukrainian side with a delay of more than six hours and it was continuing on to Warsaw.

Poland’s Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said a drone also struck in western Ukraine 1km (0.6 miles) from Poland’s border and another at a distance of 5km. Polish F-16 fighter jets and a reconnaissance aircraft monitored the situation, he said. Polish airspace was not violated.