David Petraeus, former CIA director, could hear the Russian drones above his train, which had just passed through Ukrainian customs on its way to Poland on Sunday morning. He and other passengers were quickly evacuated. Shortly after, he heard a large explosion. Petraeus, a former US Army general, is used to explosions, but said: “For those who haven’t been under fire, this was terrifying.” A Russian jet-powered drone, identified from photographs taken later, detonated after hitting the locomotive of the train next to his, he said. “This is the act of a truly barbaric leader trying to terrorize Ukrainian civilians,” he said in a telephone interview on Sunday. The attack at the Yahodyn station, near the Polish border, occurred shortly after another train carrying Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister, along with European politicians and diplomats, departed, the Ukrainian state railway said in a statement. He said the drone could have been intended to hit Mr Johnson’s train, which had departed ahead of schedule. If the attack was indeed targeted at current and former senior American, British and European officials, it would represent a significant Russian escalation. Russian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Petraeus and the European officials were leaving Ukraine after attending a security conference known as the YES forum in the capital, kyiv. The officials were traveling on a dedicated diplomatic train and had arrived at Yahodyn station on Sunday morning. The train carrying Johnson and national security advisers from several European Union and NATO member states crossed the border shortly before the attack. Petraeus, a supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia, was on his 11th visit there since the war began. He said he had been traveling separately from Mr. Johnson on a regular civilian train, and that the impact was also not a military objective. “There was no military justification for what Russia did in this case,” he said, adding that a drone also hit a gas station in the area. In its statement, the Ukrainian railway said: “It is quite possible that the target of this Russian drone was the diplomatic train, which left the station before its scheduled time as part of real-time adjustments to train schedules due to the constant threat of Russian attacks.” The attack came as Russia has been stepping up its attacks on Ukrainian rail infrastructure. On the same day that the drone hit the Yahodyn station, railway properties in central Ukraine were also attacked. Earlier this month, two other border crossings, with Moldova and Romania, were also affected, signaling a new campaign to disrupt Ukrainian logistics. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Moscow’s goal was to “cripple the economy and destroy people’s lives.” Petraeus eventually reboarded his train and traveled safely to Poland. He said he was not aware of any victims of the attack. He also said he did not believe attacks like this would defeat Ukraine in its long struggle with its much larger neighbor. “This is just part of a campaign to exhaust the Ukrainian population, which is not going to work,” he said. “They are truly unbreakable. They are tired. But they are unbreakable.”
