Train carrying Boris Johnson and Merz adviser evacuated near Polish border in Ukraine due to Russian drones

German newspaper Spiegel has learned that a train carrying Günter Sautter, one of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's closest advisers, security advisers from other European countries and former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was evacuated near the Polish border while travelling from Kyiv to Poland due to a Russian attack on another Ukrainian train.

Source: Spiegel, citing sources, as reported by European Pravda

Details: According to information obtained by Spiegel, Sautter was travelling by train from Kyiv to Poland on the night of 12-13 September. At around 05:00, the train stopped near the Polish border; some passengers were evacuated from the train due to drone strikes in the border region.

The security measures were prompted by an incident on the same railway line, where a Kyiv-Warsaw train was also targeted by a drone near the Polish border in the early morning. The state-run railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) reported that the locomotive of the train was struck, but no one was injured.

Sautter was in the Ukrainian capital alongside security advisers from the UK, France and Italy, as well as representatives of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government, to discuss possible peace negotiations with Russia. On 13 September, he attended the international YES conference on security.

In addition to Sautter, the train also carried security advisers from other European governments, members of the German Bundestag, diplomats and academics.

Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson also travelled to Poland on this special train after the conference.

No passengers were injured. The train stopped after a drone alert, prompting conductors to wake passengers and evacuate them. The all-clear was given shortly afterwards after no further drones were detected.

Robin Wagener, a member of the Green Party in the Bundestag, was also on board the special train. The MP expressed his outrage following the attacks.

"These drone attacks are blind terror against the Ukrainian civilian population and a dangerous escalation of Putin's war," Wagener told Spiegel.

The parliamentarian views the attacks as a provocation against Ukraine's supporters.

"Russia is becoming increasingly unprincipled and is playing with fire right on the border of the European Union and NATO; we must finally put a clear end to this terror," Wagener stressed.

Background:

• Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna stated that the Russian attack complicated his team's crossing of the Ukrainian-Polish border.
• Dariusz Sinecki, spokesperson for the Nadbużański Border Guard Unit in Poland, said that a drone hit a lorry near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing on the night of 12-13 September.
• Earlier, Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for Ukraine's State Border Guard Service, said that the Yahodyn border crossing itself on the border with Poland had not been hit.
• Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said that there had been no violation of the country's airspace.
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said this was Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's terrorism, which is "knocking directly on the doors" of the EU and NATO.
• Ukrzaliznytsia reported that Russia had struck the locomotive of a passenger train near the border with Poland.

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