Russian drone attack hits near Johnson and EU advisers at border, Der Spiegel says
Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia train (photo: facebook.com/Ukrzaliznytsia)
During a Russian drone attack, several senior officials from EU countries and Boris Johnson happened to be near the Ukrainian-Polish border. According to Der Spiegel, they were returning from Kyiv after a conference.
Updated at 5:13 p.m. RBC-Ukraine sources say the information Der Spiegel published is inaccurate. The train carrying German Chancellor Adviser Günter Sautter and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had already passed the Dorohusk station and was safely out of the area when the strike occurred.
Another train traveling along the same track about an hour later was attacked. In other words, the senior officials had reached their destination before the incident.
The denial was also confirmed by Carl Bildt, Co-Chair European Council on Foreign Relations.
"This wasn't our train, but the one just minutes after us by the Polish border crossing. It was evacuated as the Russian drone approached and no one was hurt. Very good safety system," he wrote.
Bildt said their train received only an evacuation warning but was able to continue to Dorohusk. The politician also stressed that Russian attacks against Ukraine are intensifying.
This wasn’t our train, but the one just minutes after us by the border crossing. It was evacuated as the drone approached and no one was hurt. Very good safety system. Our train just had an evacuation warning but could proceed to Dorohusk. The attacks against are intensifying.
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) September 13, 2026
https://t.co/SmaZX2oz42
Der Spiegel 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.
