Russia wanted to cow Ukraine allies with railway drone attack, says top EU diplomat
Russia’s Sunday morning drone strike on a Warsaw-bound train near the Ukraine-Poland border was intended to push Western countries to stop their backing for Kyiv, the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Monday.
“This is clearly intended to frighten Western countries into ceasing their support for Ukraine, into refraining from going there to demonstrate their support,” Kallas told reporters after landing in Finland for an Arctic summit.
Kallas’ words were echoed by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who said the strikes were designed “to intimidate Europeans, discourage them and above all to divide them.”
The drone hit the locomotive of a passenger train two kilometers from the frontier in Volyn region, Ukraine’s state rail operator confirmed.
Nobody was injured in the attack, but it happened shortly after a train carrying prominent Western officials and advisers had passed along the same line — prompting concerns that the diplomatic train may have been the real target.
Ukraine’s rail operator said it is “quite likely that the target of this Russian drone could also have been the diplomatic train.” Passengers included former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former CIA chief David Petraeus and U.K. National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell.
The Russian defense ministry said in a statement that it had struck railway infrastructure in western Ukraine used to “transport military cargo” from Europe.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha responded to Sunday’s border strikes with a post on X stating that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces are “knocking directly on the doors of the EU and NATO,” and urged Ukraine’s allies to “throw the full weight of your sanctions at Putin’s aggressive regime.”
Earlier this month, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned of upcoming threats to Europe’s borders following a Russian strike at a Moldova-Ukraine border crossing that killed two people.
“As you know, Russia has already resorted to provocative attacks on border crossings — for instance, in Moldova. We expect similar actions targeting border crossings with Ukraine in other countries, including Poland,” said Tusk.
Russia has also been linked to an explosive-laden drone found near Leipzig airport in Germany, a sea drone blown up by Romania in the Black Sea, and reports of a plot to assassinate the head of German arms producer Rheinmetall.
