Boris Johnson narrowly escapes drone attack - as Russia accused of 'escalation'

Boris Johnson has been caught up in a security scare after a train behind the one he was travelling in was hit by a Russian drone in Ukraine.

The former UK prime minister was going from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to Poland at night when there were drone strikes in the border region, Ukrainian Railways said.

A drone on Sunday struck a passenger train at Yahodyn station, on the Polish border, shortly after the train carrying Mr Johnson had left ahead of schedule.

No casualties were reported, but the strike has prompted a warning about the increasing threat to Europe posed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Johnson is reported to have been travelling on the same train as the prime minister's national security adviser Jonathan Powell, former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, and one of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's closest advisers, Gunter Sautter, as well as European diplomats.

The group had been in Kyiv to discuss possible peace negotiations with Russia with the Ukrainian government, according to German newspaper Der Spiegel.

The newspaper said the line between Kyiv and Warsaw had been attacked and a train was struck.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said that Russian strikes were hitting closer to NATO and EU member Poland.

"Putin's terror is literally knocking on the doors of the European Union and NATO," he said.

Ukraine's railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said in a post on Telegram it was "quite possible" that the drone had been aimed at Mr Johnson's train.

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The company said the train "had departed the station earlier than scheduled due to real-time adjustments to train timetables necessitated by the constant threat of Russian strikes".

Mr Johnson condemned the attack as "random and senseless".

He said on X: "I don't know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning.

"What we can say for sure is that this is the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day - even on civilian railways.

"So far Putin has been responsible for the deaths of 1,700 staff of Ukrzaliznytsia - Ukrainian Railways. They and their daily passengers are absolutely heroic."

Mr Bildt posted a video of a train being evacuated after what appeared to be an explosion on X, and wrote: "This wasn't our train, but the one just minutes after us by the border crossing.

"It was evacuated as the Russian drone approached and no one was hurt. Very good safety system. Our train just had an evacuation warning but could proceed to Dorohusk. The Russian attacks against Ukraine are intensifying."

Polish foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said the Russian threat was already "inside the house".

Mr Sikorski accused Moscow of waging a "hybrid war" against European nations that went further than cyberattacks, disinformation and espionage to "arson incidents in Poland", "attempts to bring down airliners in Lithuania", and "an attempt to derail a moving train in Poland" - representing an "escalation" in Russian activities.

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Earlier on Sunday, a truck less than a mile from Ukraine's border with Poland was ‌also hit, with operations at the Dorohusk-Yahodyn crossing point being briefly stopped, said border guards.

Russia's defence ministry said it had targeted infrastructure facilitating military cargoes from Europe in western Ukraine.

With the frontline largely static, both Moscow and Kyiv have intensified long-distance ‌strikes in recent weeks to try to shift momentum in the war.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop targeting Russian diesel infrastructure, saying the attacks were causing a shortage of the fuel.

"I've asked President Zelenskyy not to hit the diesel plants, refineries. Diesel is being driven up by the fact that it's having a hard time coming out of Russia, and that's the case that hurts the world."

A wave of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries in recent months has reduced that country's fuel production, triggering gasoline shortages across the country.

Ukraine, which faces regular Russian attacks on its own energy infrastructure, says refineries are legitimate military targets.

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