Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was evacuated from a train in Ukraine on Sunday after a Russian drone attack targeted a nearby passenger railway service close to the Polish border.
Johnson was travelling on a separate train with other European officials after attending a security conference in Kyiv when passengers were ordered to evacuate following a drone alert.
The train was later cleared to continue its journey towards Poland.
A Russian drone subsequently struck the locomotive of a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train on the same railway line, about two kilometres from the Polish border, according to Ukraine’s state railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia.
The train had been evacuated after an advance warning of the drone threat, and no passengers were injured.
Johnson later condemned the attack in a post on X, questioning what he described as the “warped logic” behind Russia’s decision to target a stationary Ukrainian locomotive near the Polish border.
He said the incident was an example of the attacks Ukrainians endure daily, including on civilian railway infrastructure.
Johnson also claimed that 1,700 employees of Ukrzaliznytsia had been killed since Russia’s invasion, and praised Ukrainian railway workers and passengers as “absolutely heroic.”
He called on Western countries to provide Ukraine with more air defence systems and urged governments to use frozen Russian assets to support Kyiv.
“There is more than €140bn in a Belgian bank account – and about £10bn in London. Britain could show a lead,” Johnson said.
He also expressed confidence that Ukraine would ultimately prevail in the war, arguing that increased military support could help bring the conflict to an end more quickly.
The incident occurred amid a wider Russian drone assault across Ukraine, including attacks on railway infrastructure and areas close to Ukraine’s border with Poland.
Poland responded by putting its air defences on alert and scrambling aircraft, although no Russian drone entered Polish airspace.
