Russian Drone Strike Nearly Killed Former CIA Director, Boris Johnson

A Russian drone strike near Ukraine’s border with Poland narrowly missed trains carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former CIA Director David Petraeus in an attack Ukrainian officials say may have been aimed at the Western dignitaries.

The drone struck a locomotive near Yahodyn railway station on Sunday, just minutes after a diplomatic train carrying Johnson, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, and European security advisers had departed the area, according to the Washington Post. Petraeus was on a separate train at the station and was evacuated shortly before the strike. No one aboard the trains was reported killed or injured.

Ukraine’s state railway operator said it was “highly probable” the diplomatic train was the intended target. The train had departed earlier than scheduled after railway officials adjusted its timetable because of the threat of Russian strikes.

The Russian government has not acknowledged targeting the Western officials. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces struck railway infrastructure in western Ukraine used to transport military cargo from Europe. The incident nevertheless placed some of the most prominent Western figures to visit Ukraine in recent years directly in the path of a Russian drone attack.

Petraeus, a retired four-star Army general who served as CIA director under President Barack Obama, was traveling back from the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv when his train was evacuated. He told reporters the evacuation was unlike anything he had experienced during his numerous trips to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The attack came less than a week after another incident involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian drones.

On September 8, a Russian drone entered Moldovan airspace as Zelensky’s presidential aircraft was preparing to leave Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, for the funeral of the King of Norway. Norwegian officials said the drone nearly struck the plane, although Moldovan officials said the aircraft itself was never in danger.

The incidents have raised concern among European officials about Russian attacks increasingly approaching the territory of NATO members and countries supporting Ukraine.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned this week that Russia could attempt to carry out drone or missile attacks against NATO countries while portraying them as accidents. He said Polish intelligence and allied intelligence agencies had warned that Russia was likely to target Ukrainian border crossings and other infrastructure near the Polish border.

The train strike occurred less than two miles from Poland. Another Russian drone attack that day hit a truck less than a mile from the Polish border. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the strikes as Russia “knocking directly on the doors of the EU and NATO.”

The incidents are part of a broader series of Russian operations that have increasingly put Western interests and personnel in proximity to the fighting.

In 2024, U.S. officials warned European governments about a Russian intelligence operation that used recruits to place incendiary devices aboard cargo aircraft in Britain, Poland, and Germany. European governments have also attributed other sabotage, arson, and drone incidents to Russian intelligence services, although Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility for such operations.

The United States has also accused Russian intelligence operatives of plotting assassinations of Kremlin critics abroad. A Justice Department indictment unsealed this week alleges that Russian intelligence-linked operatives attempted to recruit individuals to kill dissidents in Washington and Lithuania. Russia has rejected the allegations.

The latest train strike comes as the Trump administration continues to pursue negotiations aimed at ending the war while Russia and Ukraine continue long-range attacks against each other. Russia has increasingly used long-range drones and missiles to strike targets far from the front lines, while Ukraine has conducted its own campaign against Russian energy and military infrastructure.

The danger for Western officials traveling through Ukraine is unusually acute because Ukraine’s airspace remains closed to civilian traffic. Foreign leaders and senior officials visiting Kyiv routinely travel by train as a result.

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