Ukraine's state railway operator said top Western figures, including former prime minister Boris Johnson and ex-CIA director David Petraeus were at a west Ukrainian train station shortly before Russia reportedly 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."
German lawmaker Robin Wagener also said he had been traveling by train on the same line hit by a Russian drone attack near the Polish border, warning that Russia was an “immense danger to Europe’s security.”
‘Chance decided survival’
In a social media post, the Green lawmaker said he had just come from Kiev, where air defence fire and drone attacks were more intense than on previous visits. “And this morning I traveled by train on the same route where this attack happened,” he wrote, sharing a video of the strike. “Sometimes chance decides whether you get through safely — after Russian terrorists have already decided on the attack.”
“Russia is an immense danger to Europe’s security. Too many of us have still not realised that,” Wagener wrote. “Our support for Ukraine in defending against it is still too hesitant.”
In the German parliament, Wagener serves on the Foreign Affairs and European Affairs Committees and is the Green group’s spokesperson on Eastern Europe. He also chairs the German-Ukrainian parliamentary friendship group.
Der Spiegel reported that the special train was later stopped over a drone threat and partly evacuated after strikes in the area. Guenter Sautter, one of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s closest advisers, was among those on board.
The security measure followed an attack on the same railway line. Early Sunday, a drone struck a passenger train traveling from Kiev to Warsaw near the Polish border. The operator said the locomotive was hit. No one was injured.
Sautter, a foreign and security policy adviser at the Chancellery, had been in Kiev with security advisers from Britain, France and Italy for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government on possible peace negotiations with Russia. He also attended the Yalta European Strategy conference on Saturday.
