People wait for the end of the air raid alert and resumption of metro train service during a Russian drone attack, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at an overcrowded metro station in Kyiv, Ukraine. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters
A Russian drone struck a Kyiv-to-Warsaw passenger train near the Polish border on Sunday (September 13, 2026) but caused no casualties, Ukraine and Poland said, as Moscow steps up attacks in the fifth year of its invasion.
The strike, just two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the Polish border, came days after U.S. envoys visited Kyiv and Moscow, hoping to revive Washington-led talks on ending Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, without securing a breakthrough.
NATO member Poland said a second drone struck near a border crossing, prompting Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski to accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of “escalating” the conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow struck the train “deliberately” and accused Russia of attacking rail and energy infrastructure as well as civilian buildings across the country, including in the west.
“It is precisely to prevent these strikes from spreading further into Europe that Ukrainian men and women fight every day, give their lives, and do not allow the aggression to expand,” Zelensky said.
‘Putin is escalating’
“Putin is escalating,” Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski said on social media.
The country’s PKP Intercity rail service said the train was travelling from Kyiv to Warsaw with 206 passengers onboard.
With Ukrainian airspace closed, trains to neighbouring Poland have been one of the main routes out of the war-torn country, often carrying refugees and packed with women and children.
Neither country reported casualties and Intercity said the service was delayed by more than six hours but would travel on to Warsaw after border checks were completed.
Poland’s Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said one drone struck near the Dorohusk-Yagodyn border crossing, while the other hit the passenger train.
“We are treating these events with the utmost seriousness. The situation is being monitored on an ongoing basis,” Mr. Kierwinski said.
Russian attacks killed at least two people on Sunday, both in the frontline city of Kramatorsk.
Twenty people, including two children, were also wounded in a second day of attacks on the southern port city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said.
Three-way talks
The Kremlin, meanwhile, said three-way negotiations with Ukraine and the US on ending the war could take place in October.
“We do not rule out such a possibility; we are talking about the foreseeable future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, cited by Russia’s Ria and Tass news agencies.
Several previous rounds of negotiations have failed, while U.S.-led efforts stalled during the Middle East war.
In an interview released on Saturday, Mr. Zelenskyy said he would be willing to meet Mr. Putin at the G20 summit in Miami in December for talks.
But Peskov immediately said that was “impossible”, speaking to AFP in New Delhi on Saturday (September 12), repeating Moscow’s demand that a meeting could only take place in the Russian capital.
Mr. Putin has repeatedly rejected offers for a face-to-face sit-down with Zelensky aimed at brokering an end to the conflict and has repeatedly said Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine.
On Sunday (September 13), Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov told journalists, including those from AFP, that there was still no “coordinated package” on which negotiations could be based.
“At present, there is the idea that we need to reach an agreement on the territorial issue. But there are also many other questions,” he added.
Published – September 13, 2026 11:18 pm IST
