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Firefighters spray water on a train carriage damaged in a Russian drone attack near the Polish border on Sept. 13 local time. / AFP-Yonhap

A Russian jet-powered drone struck a Ukrainian passenger train near the Ukraine-Poland border on Sept. 13 local time, The Wall Street Journal reported. The attack came shortly after a train carrying senior European figures had passed through the area, prompting criticism across Europe that tensions were escalating dangerously close to NATO territory.

Ukrainian Railways said the passenger train was hit at Yahodyn station, about 1.6 kilometers from the Polish border. No casualties were reported after an aerial surveillance team issued an advance warning.

The station had been passed shortly before the attack by a diplomatic train carrying former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt.

Reuters reported that Ukrainian railway authorities, citing the continuing threat of Russian attacks, had adjusted train schedules in real time and suggested that the diplomatic train, which departed earlier than scheduled, may have been the drone’s intended target.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a briefing that Warsaw had been aware of Russian plans to disrupt border crossings with Ukraine and warned that the conflict was moving ever closer to NATO territory.

Johnson, who was visiting Kyiv to attend the Yalta European Strategy meeting alongside other senior officials, including security advisers from the U.K., France and Germany, condemned what he called Russia’s “indiscriminate and senseless attacks” on civilian rail infrastructure in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

He also called for greater Western support for Ukraine’s air defenses and for financial assistance funded through frozen Russian assets.

Meanwhile, the prolonged war is increasingly expanding into a long-range strike campaign between Russia and Ukraine, with effects spilling over into neighboring countries and global energy markets.

Russian forces have been intensifying attacks on Ukraine’s rail and energy infrastructure using high-speed jet-powered drones and missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched 78 missiles and around 2,100 drones over the past week, damaging critical infrastructure.

Ukraine, in turn, has been striking Russian refineries and defense factories with domestically developed long-range drones.

According to energy consultancy Energy Aspects, repeated Ukrainian attacks reduced Russia’s daily crude refining throughput to 3.8 million barrels in August, down from 5 million barrels a day in the same month a year earlier.

U.S. President Donald Trump, facing pressure from rising fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections, has urged Ukraine to stop attacking Russian refineries, saying the strikes were “causing a diesel fuel shortage.”

                                                                                                           Lee Jeong-eun