Boris Johnson was travelling on a private train that received an evacuation alert after a nearby service was struck by a Russian drone.
The former UK prime minister was returning towards Poland after attending a major security conference in Kyiv when the train halted at about 5am during a drone warning.
Mr Johnson is believed to have remained safe and unharmed. The alert was lifted soon afterwards when authorities found no signs of additional drones.
Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister who was travelling on the same train, said passengers had been warned that they might need to evacuate.
It remains unclear whether anyone was actually taken off the train before it continued over the border and reached NATO territory in Poland.
Bildt said the train targeted in the attack was the service immediately behind theirs.
‘It was not our train that was hit,’ Bildt said. ‘The strike happened on the train just minutes behind us, near the Polish border crossing.’
‘That train was evacuated as the Russian drone approached, and nobody was injured.’
The attack followed a separate incident involving another service on the Kyiv-to-Warsaw route, which was targeted close to the Polish border.
The train’s locomotive was damaged in the strike, but Ukrainian railway officials said there were no injuries. It was carrying 206 passengers, many of whom were seen fleeing in panic after the attack.
Boris Johnson has exclusively provided Our News Outlet with photographs showing the aftermath of the Russian drone strike.
A photograph taken by Boris Johnson shows the damage inflicted on the front of the train after the drone attack.
A rail worker assesses the damage to the railway line after the incident, as pictured by Boris Johnson
It is not clear if anyone had to leave the train, pictured by Boris Johnson, before it then escaped across the border
Passengers in part of the train were woken by conductors and temporarily evacuated as drones were detected near the railway line
It was also carrying Günter Sautter, one of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s closest foreign and security-policy advisers, as well as security advisers from Britain, France and Italy, German MPs, diplomats and academics.
Mr Johnson and the other officials had been in Kyiv for the 2026 annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy, an international security conference where Western officials held discussions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government about possible peace negotiations with Russia.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said a Russian drone had also struck the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing, one of the country’s most important links with the European Union.
Footage circulating on social media appeared to show trucks on fire at the crossing, while Ukrainian media reported that a petrol station had also been hit. There were no immediate reports of casualties and the Polish military confirmed the attack.
The attack came just two kilometres from the Polish border, according to Ukrainian railway officials, raising concerns about Russian strikes reaching increasingly close to NATO territory.
Russian drones have increasingly targeted Ukrainian rail infrastructure, with Ukrainian Railways accusing Moscow of carrying out systematic attacks on the network.
The state-owned operator said its monitoring centre and staff were ‘on high alert’ following nationwide attacks, warning passengers of possible evacuations, delays and diversions.
Robin Wagener, a Green Party member of the German Bundestag who was also aboard the special train, described the attack as a dangerous escalation.
‘These drone attacks are blind terror against Ukrainian civilians and a dangerous escalation in Putin’s war,’ Wagener told Der Spiegel.
Mr Johnson and the other officials had been in Kyiv for the 2026 annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy. Here he is pictured addressing the conference earlier this year in February
During the international security conference in February Western officials held discussions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government about possible peace negotiations with Russia
The MP said he believed the strikes were also intended as a warning to countries supporting Ukraine.
‘Russia is becoming increasingly unscrupulous and is playing with fire right on the border of the European Union and NATO; we must finally put a clear stop to this terror,’ Wagener demanded.
The attack came as Russia launched a major wave of strikes across Ukraine, with Ukrainian authorities reporting hundreds of drones being used overnight.
A separate Russian drone attack on the Kyiv-Warsaw line also damaged a passenger train near the Yahodyn crossing but caused no casualties.
The railway route is regularly used by foreign dignitaries travelling between Ukraine and Poland, making the incident particularly sensitive as European governments step up their support for Kyiv.
Russian attacks near the Polish frontier have also prompted heightened concern in Warsaw, with Polish authorities activating defensive measures following the latest strikes.
