Russian drone attack hits near Johnson and EU advisers at border, Der Spiegel says
The politicians narrowly escaped Russia's drone strike near Poland on September 13 (photo: facebook.com/Ukrzaliznytsia)
Senior officials from several EU countries and Boris Johnson were near the Ukrainian-Polish border during a Russian drone attack. They were returning from Kyiv after the conference.
According to RBC-Ukraine sources, Der Spiegel's report is inaccurate. The train carrying German Chancellor's adviser Günter Sautte and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had already passed Dorohusk station and was safe when the strike occurred.
A different train traveling along the same railway line about an hour later came under attack. In other words, the senior officials had reached their destination before the incident occurred.
RBC-Ukraine reports this, citing Der Spiegel.
The outlet says Günter Sautter, one of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's closest advisers and a foreign and security policy adviser at the Federal Chancellery, was affected by the Russian attack.
He was traveling by overnight train from Kyiv to Poland on Saturday, September 12, in the evening. Around 5 a.m., the privately chartered train stopped near the Polish border. Part of the train was evacuated because of drone strikes in the border area.
Sautter was traveling with security advisers from other European governments, members of the German Bundestag, diplomats, and academics.
They had all been in Kyiv, where they discussed possible peace talks with Russia with Volodymyr Zelenskyy's team and attended the international Yalta European Strategy security conference. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also returned from the conference on the same special train.
A separate incident on the same railway line triggered the security alert. Early that morning, a drone attacked the Kyiv-Warsaw railway near the Polish border. According to the operator, the drone hit the locomotive, but no one was injured.
Der Spiegel said everyone escaped safely. Shortly after the train was stopped because of the alert and conductors woke passengers to evacuate, the all-clear was given because no additional drones were detected.
Lawmakers react
The Greens Party member Robin Wagener was also on the train and said he was shocked by the attack.
"These drone attacks are blind terror against Ukrainian civilians and a dangerous escalation of Putin's war," he told the media.
According to the lawmaker, Russia is becoming increasingly unscrupulous and is playing with fire right on the border of the EU and NATO, so this terror must be brought to an end.
Earlier, Russia struck a railway line near the Ukrainian-Polish border, with a drone hitting the locomotive of a passenger train in the Volyn region, two kilometers from the Polish border. Despite the damage, no one was injured.
The day before, Russia also targeted a passenger train in Lutsk, Ukraine. Passengers and staff were evacuated in advance, so there were no casualties, although the strike sparked a fire.
