Russia hits passenger train on Ukraine-Poland border, "diplomatic train" escapes attack

A Russian drone hit a passenger train on Ukraine's border with NATO member Poland today, shortly after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other European diplomats passed along the same tracks.

The train, which was traveling on a line often used by foreign delegations returning from Kiev, was attacked just two kilometers from the border with Poland, the Ukrainian railway operator said, Reuters reports.

There were no casualties.

"It was not our train, but one that arrived at the border crossing just a few minutes after us. It was evacuated as the drone approached and no one was injured," former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt wrote on the X network.

He and other politicians were returning by train after attending a conference in Kiev.

"It is entirely possible that the intended target of the Russian drone was a diplomatic train, which left the station earlier than planned, after the schedule was changed in real time due to the constant threat of Russian attacks," Ukrainian rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said on Telegram.

Boris Johnson, who was also on the train that left the station just before the attack, condemned the attack as "random and senseless" in a post on Instagram.

With the front line largely unchanged, both Moscow and Kiev have stepped up long-range attacks in recent weeks in an attempt to turn the tide of the war in their favor.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski described the increasing number of Russian attacks in the immediate vicinity of NATO as an "escalation".

Earlier today, a truck was also hit less than a kilometer from Ukraine's border with Poland, causing the Dorohusk-Jagodin border crossing to briefly suspend operations, the border service said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had targeted infrastructure in western Ukraine that allows the transport of military cargo from Europe.

Russia has in recent weeks begun targeting Ukrainian border crossings with its Western allies, as part of an increasingly intense campaign by both sides aimed at weakening the economic infrastructure of their opponents, more than four years since the start of the Russian invasion.

Russia reports attack near Zaporozhye nuclear power plant

During the night there were no signs of abating the conflict.

In the Russian-controlled part of southeastern Ukraine's Zaporizhia region, the director of Russia's state nuclear energy company Rosatom accused Ukraine of targeting fuel tankers near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.

The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant has been under Russian control since March 2022 and remains close to the front line. A Ukrainian military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

In Russia itself, the mayor of Nizhnekamsk, a city in Tatarstan in the Volga River region, said Ukrainian drones had hit "civilian and industrial" targets in the city, killing at least two people and injuring several others.

Mayor Radmir Beljajev did not specify which targets were hit, but the city is home to a large oil refinery that has been the target of attacks before.

Ukrainian authorities did not immediately comment on the attack on Nizhnekamsk, but said they had hit another refinery in the southern Krasnodar region.