Boris Johnson was reportedly on a special train that had to be evacuated suddenly following a Russian drone alert close to Ukraine’s border with Poland.
The former UK prime minister was heading towards Poland after taking part in a high-profile security conference in Kyiv when the train came to a halt at about 5am.
Conductors woke passengers in one section of the train and moved them out temporarily after drones were reported near the tracks, German publication Der Spiegel said.
Mr Johnson was not hurt, it is understood. An all-clear was issued a short time later after no additional drones were spotted.
The security scare followed a separate Russian drone strike on another train operating between Kyiv and Warsaw near the Polish frontier.
Ukrainian railway officials said the locomotive was struck, though there were no injuries among the 206 people on board. Passengers were seen fleeing in panic in the aftermath of the attack.
There was no suggestion that the privately chartered train carrying Mr Johnson had been directly hit.
Also travelling on the train were Günter Sautter, a senior foreign and security-policy adviser to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, alongside British, French and Italian security advisers, German parliamentarians, diplomats and academics.
The alert came after a separate Kyiv-Warsaw service was hit by a Russian drone close to the Polish border.
Passengers were awakened and temporarily moved from part of the train after drones were detected near the railway line.
The locomotive was hit but, according to Ukrainian railway authorities, nobody was injured
Mr Johnson and the other officials had been in Kyiv for the 2026 annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy, an international security conference where Western officials held discussions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government about possible peace negotiations with Russia.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said a Russian drone had also struck the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing, one of the country’s most important links with the European Union.
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Footage circulating on social media appeared to show trucks on fire at the crossing, while Ukrainian media reported that a petrol station had also been hit. There were no immediate reports of casualties and the Polish military confirmed the attack.
The attack came just two kilometres from the Polish border, according to Ukrainian railway officials, raising concerns about Russian strikes reaching increasingly close to NATO territory.
Russian drones have increasingly targeted Ukrainian rail infrastructure, with Ukrainian Railways accusing Moscow of carrying out systematic attacks on the network.
The state-owned operator said its monitoring centre and staff were ‘on high alert’ following nationwide attacks, warning passengers of possible evacuations, delays and diversions.
Robin Wagener, a Green Party member of the German Bundestag who was also aboard the special train, described the attack as a dangerous escalation.
‘These drone attacks are blind terror against Ukrainian civilians and a dangerous escalation in Putin’s war,’ Wagener told Der Spiegel.
Mr Johnson and the other officials had been in Kyiv for the 2026 annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy
The MP said he believed the strikes were also intended as a warning to countries supporting Ukraine.
‘Russia is becoming increasingly unscrupulous and is playing with fire right on the border of the European Union and NATO; we must finally put a clear stop to this terror,’ Wagener demanded.
The attack came as Russia launched a major wave of strikes across Ukraine, with Ukrainian authorities reporting hundreds of drones being used overnight. A separate Russian drone attack on the Kyiv-Warsaw line also damaged a passenger train near the Yahodyn crossing but caused no casualties.
The railway route is regularly used by foreign dignitaries travelling between Ukraine and Poland, making the incident particularly sensitive as European governments step up their support for Kyiv.
Russian attacks near the Polish frontier have also prompted heightened concern in Warsaw, with Polish authorities activating defensive measures following the latest strikes.