Ukrainian officials say trains carrying Boris Johnson and other senior foreign figures were probably the intended target of a Russian drone attack near the Polish border, in an incident security experts have described as a possible deliberate warning from the Kremlin. Johnson's charter train, returning from a security conference in Kyiv, was rerouted onto an earlier schedule after receiving a drone alert, narrowly avoiding a strike that hit a stationary locomotive on the same line just over an hour later, though no one was injured.

Ukraine's rail operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, said it was "quite likely" the diplomatic train was targeted, noting it had departed early as part of ongoing schedule changes prompted by the constant threat of Russian strikes. The train's passengers included UK national security adviser Jonathan Powell and former CIA director David Petraeus, while former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, on a nearby train, said his passengers had briefly been told to prepare for evacuation. Johnson said the attack would not deter him from returning to Ukraine, while a German MP travelling with him said the strike showed Vladimir Putin was "playing with fire" near the EU and NATO border; the group had been attending the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv.