A swarm of Russian Geran-5 drones struck this Sunday in western Ukraine a few kilometers from the border with Poland, a member of NATO and the European Union, in the latest episode of a deliberate escalation by Moscow against its Western allies, as reported by the Spanish newspaper El País.
One of the projectiles struck the locomotive of the passenger train that travels the route between Kiev and Warsaw, just two kilometers from the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing, in the Volyn region. Another drone fell one kilometer from the Polish border and a third one five kilometers away, as confirmed by Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz on his social media.
The attack also set fire to a gas station and several trucks near the border crossing, although no casualties were reported among the train passengers: the crew was alerted in time and proceeded with the evacuation. The Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznytsia described the incident as part of a "systemic attack" against the entire railway network of the country.
The incident had a high-risk diplomatic dimension. A few minutes before the train was hit, a convoy transporting former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt and other members of a European delegation had traveled the same route, as Bildt himself explained on his social media.
That train also received an evacuation notice, but managed to continue to Dorohusk, now in Polish territory. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the foreign policy advisor to the German chancellor Friedrich Merz, Günter Sautter, were also traveling on that route, although their convoy had already crossed the border when the attack occurred.
The Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Margus Tsahkna, and his delegation did not share the same fate: they were stranded at the border crossing, unable to leave Ukraine due to the threat of drones. «Russia's attacks are becoming more intense and are getting closer to NATO and the EU. Our response must also escalate», Tsahkna wrote on his social media.
In parallel, Lithuania suspended operations at Vilnius airport and NATO scrambled jets due to the possible presence of a drone in its airspace, although the airport reopened approximately an hour later.
The spokesperson for the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces, Jacek Goryszewski, described the threat as "real": "Drones were operating and even striking targets very close to the Polish border, just a few kilometers away," he stated according to the Polish channel RMF24. The Polish Minister of the Interior, Marcin Kierwinski, was more direct: "Russia is an enemy of the free world".
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, strongly condemned the attack: "This is Putin's terror, knocking directly on the doors of the EU and NATO. The barbaric Russians are at your doors, dear partners."
The attack is part of a growing pattern of Russian hybrid warfare against NATO that combines sabotage, cyberattacks, disinformation, and deniable operations to pressure allies without formally crossing the threshold of Article 5.
In July, a Russian Kh-101 missile struck Polish territory, in the Lublin Voivodeship, marking the most serious incident of territorial violation against the Alliance since the beginning of the invasion. In August, a drone laden with explosives was found near Leipzig Airport in Germany, which authorities described as a Russian-style sabotage operation.
The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, has been warning about this strategy for months. On Friday, he revealed in Bratislava that a "direct threat" had been neutralized at a border crossing that same day and anticipated "more actions of this kind at border crossings with Ukraine in other countries, including Poland."
Tusk also revealed that he received a detailed report from the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, about possible incidents in the coming months.
After the attack on Sunday, the Polish government urgently convened a meeting of the Government Security Center with the Interior and Defense ministers. The nationwide Russian attacks in Ukraine that day resulted in a toll of six dead and 43 injured, according to the Kyiv Independent.
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