The Ukrainian railway company warned on Sunday that a “systemic attack” targeting rail was underway in the country, notably after a Russian drone strike on a train bound for Warsaw described as “deliberate” by President Zelensky.
“A systemic attack on rail is underway across the country. Our monitoring center and our employees are on high alert,” the Ukrzaliznytsia railway company said.
She indicated significant delays and asked users to prepare for possible evacuations, a procedure already common as Moscow regularly targets infrastructure and rail transport in its drone and missile strikes.
A Russian drone notably struck a train bound for Warsaw near the Polish border in Ukraine on Sunday, without causing any casualties, Warsaw and kyiv announced.
Ukraine said the strike took place two kilometers from the border with NATO member Poland and hit the passenger train’s locomotive. Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Moscow “deliberately” hit the train.
Poland also said another drone struck near a border crossing. Russia is stepping up its strikes, more than four and a half years after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow had targeted Ukraine’s railway and energy infrastructure as well as “civilian buildings”, particularly in the west of the country.
Locomotive and gas station affected
“All necessary services are working near the Polish-Ukrainian border in the Volhynia region, where the Russians deliberately set fire to a locomotive and damaged a gas station in a drone strike,” Zelensky said.
Polish railway company PKP Intercity said the train was connecting kyiv with Warsaw and was carrying 206 passengers.
Neither country reported casualties and Intercity said the train was more than six hours late, but would continue its journey to Warsaw after customs formalities at the border.
Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said one of the drones launched by Moscow struck near the Dorohusk-Yagodyn border crossing, while the other hit the passenger train.
“We treat these events with the utmost seriousness. The situation is under constant monitoring,” Kierwinski said.
The strikes came just a week after US envoys visited Moscow and kyiv, as part of efforts to revive Washington-led negotiations to end the conflict. At least two civilians were killed by Russian strikes in Ukraine on Sunday.
