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Former CIA Director David Petraeus was aboard a train at Ukraine's Yahodyn station at the exact moment a Russian drone struck a nearby passenger train on Sunday, shortly after a diplomatic train carrying former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other European officials had passed through the same station, according to Ukraine's state railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia.
Petraeus described the moment to The New York Times (NYT) in a telephone interview.
"For those who have not been under fire, this was terrifying," he said, adding, "This is the act of a truly barbaric leader trying to terrorize Ukrainian civilians."
Ukrzaliznytsia said the diplomatic train carrying Johnson, European security advisers and other former leaders had departed Yahodyn station, about 2 kilometers from the Polish border, earlier than scheduled "because of the constant threat of Russian strikes," and had already crossed into Poland by the time of the attack.
Petraeus was traveling on a separate train still at the station when the strike occurred.
The rail operator said an evacuation warning for the struck train was issued just 15 minutes before a Russian jet-propelled drone hit its locomotive, after a dispatcher detected the drone.
"It is highly likely that the Russian drone's intended target was actually the diplomatic train, which had departed the station earlier than scheduled due to real-time schedule adjustments made in response to the constant threat of Russian strikes," Ukrzaliznytsia said.
Poland's PKP Intercity rail service said the struck train was traveling from Kyiv to Warsaw carrying 206 passengers.
No casualties were reported from either country, though the service was delayed more than six hours before continuing to Warsaw after border checks.
Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, who was on the same train as Johnson, said passengers had received an evacuation order after the train stopped but were told minutes later they could continue their journey.
"This wasn't our train, but the one just minutes after us by the Polish border crossing," Bildt wrote on X, sharing video appearing to show the drone strike as passengers evacuated.
"It was evacuated as the drone approached and no one was hurt," he added.
German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that the privately chartered train carrying Johnson also carried Gunter Sautter, a senior adviser to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, along with U.K. National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell and other European security advisers, diplomats and academics returning from the Yalta European Strategy (YES) security conference in Kyiv.
German Green Party lawmaker Robin Wagener, also aboard, called the attack "blind terror against Ukrainian civilians and a dangerous escalation in Putin's war," adding: "Sometimes chance decides whether you get through safely, after Russian terrorists have already decided on the attack."
Johnson condemned the strike on X. "I don't know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning," he wrote, calling it "the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day, even on civilian railways."
He said Putin was "responsible for the deaths of 1,700 staff of Ukrzaliznytsia," and called for allies to unfreeze roughly €140 billion ($161.78 billion) in frozen Russian assets held in Belgium and about £10 billion held in London to support Ukraine.
"The Ukrainians are going to win, that much was clear from the last three days in their wonderful country," Johnson wrote, adding that the war would end faster "if we all get serious and give them what they need and deserve."
Polish and Ukrainian authorities said a second Russian drone struck near the Dorohusk-Yahodyn border crossing, hitting a gas station roughly 800 meters from the crossing point and briefly halting operations there.
Polish military aircraft were scrambled in response. "Due to the activity of the Russian Federation's jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles conducting strikes on Ukrainian territory, military aviation operations have commenced in Polish airspace," Poland's armed forces said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had "deliberately" struck the locomotive.
"It is precisely to prevent these strikes from spreading further into Europe that Ukrainian men and women fight every day, give their lives, and do not allow the aggression to expand," he said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the strikes "Putin's terror 'knocking' directly on the doors of the EU and NATO," adding: "Russian barbarians are at your gate, dear partners."
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, speaking in Kyiv, called the strikes "an escalation" and urged allies to "double" support for Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk convened an emergency meeting in Warsaw, warning that "the coming weeks and months will be a period of very intensive actions on the Russian side" and that Poland "cannot rule out that this escalation will also affect our territory."
Poland's Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said the incidents were being treated "with the utmost seriousness."
British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting called the attacks a "stark reminder" of what Ukrainians face daily, saying they underline "the wider security threat Russia poses."
The European Commission said it "strongly condemns the latest Russian strikes near the Ukraine-Poland border, including the attack on a passenger train," according to spokesperson Anouar el-Anouni, who pointed to the EU's recent approval of €6.1 billion in support for Ukraine's air and missile defense.
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