Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – 14 September. – (Adnkronos)
A day after the Russian attack in Ukraine that hit a passenger train about two kilometers from the Polish border, concerns are growing about Russia's "escalation." The raid, which occurred near Yahodyn, takes on particular weight because it occurred just minutes after a diplomatic convoy carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, and several European security advisers passed through.
None of the passengers were injured.
But there's a detail that makes the episode even more sensitive: David Petraeus, former CIA director, was also in the station at the time of the attack. Petraeus was in Ukraine to attend the Yalta European Strategy, the same forum that had also brought Johnson and Bildt to Kiev. At the time of the raid, according to Ukrzaliznytsia, the former CIA chief was on another train, stopped at Yahodyn station.
Petraeus told the New York Times that he heard the drones approaching and then the explosion, calling those moments “terrifying.”
“For anyone who has never been under enemy fire, it was terrifying… This is the act of a truly barbaric leader seeking to terrorize Ukrainian civilians,” he said.
The advance of Russian forces in Ukraine will continue, no one should have any doubts about that, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"Russia is indeed improving its progress day by day and is steadily moving toward achieving its goals. This momentum will continue; no one should have any doubts about that," Peskov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
The raid took place on Sunday, September 13, near the Yahodyn station in the Volhynia region of Ukraine, along the railway line connecting Kiev to Poland.
A Russian drone struck the locomotive of a passenger train headed to Warsaw. The train was evacuated after the alarm was raised, and no casualties were reported. In the same area, another attack hit a gas station and several vehicles near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk crossing, less than a kilometer from Polish territory.
Ukrzaliznytsia's hypothesis is that the target could have been the diplomatic train carrying Johnson, Bildt, and other European officials, which had departed the station just minutes before the crash. At this time, however, there is insufficient public evidence to confirm that the diplomatic convoy was actually targeted.
Carl Bildt confirmed that his train had already crossed the border when the attack occurred. According to the former Swedish prime minister, the following train was evacuated before the impact thanks to the security systems' alert.
Russia claimed to have targeted railway infrastructure used to transport military equipment to Ukraine. The fact that a passenger train was hit, however, fueled accusations from Kiev and its allies.
For Polish authorities, however, the distance from the border is a matter of grave concern. Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an emergency meeting, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as a "deliberate" one. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the attack as a "knock on the door" of the European Union and NATO. Boris Johnson also condemned the strike, calling it a "random and senseless" attack on civilian infrastructure.
The attack was “clearly a message to the Western world,” designed to frighten Western countries and “dissuade them from supporting Ukraine,” including by physically traveling to the country under attack, said the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, entering the European Arctic Summit underway in Rovaniemi, Finland.
"The question for us is: what should we take from this message? I think we should do the opposite: we should demonstrate that we stand by Ukraine and that we are not afraid, because otherwise Russia would get exactly what it wants: Ukraine's subjugation," Kallas continues. That, he reiterates, isn't even Moscow's ultimate goal, which "is much broader, so we must be firm on this."
According to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, last weekend's Russian attacks aimed to "intimidate, discourage, and above all divide" European allies.
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