‘Escalation is becoming a fact’: Tusk says Russia may target Ukrainian border crossings after drones hit a Kyiv–Warsaw train and nearby gas station

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk held a special briefing after Russian forces launched drone strikes just a few miles from the Ukrainian-Polish border. On the morning of September 13, one drone struck a gas station a few miles from the border, while another hit the locomotive of a passenger train.

“The escalation of actions by the Russian Federation is becoming a fact, and examples of it are ever closer to our border,” Tusk said. (All quotations in this article are from the Polish Press Agency.)

Tusk said he believes Russia will try to intensify its operations in Ukraine in the coming weeks and months. “We unfortunately cannot rule out that this escalation will also affect our territory,” he said.

Tusk said the Russian military may seek to disrupt operations at Ukrainian border crossings and perhaps even destroy them, which could directly affect Poland.

Tusk expressed hope that “this worst-case scenario will not materialize” and said the Polish authorities would do everything possible to protect the country. He also said Poland was prepared to ask its NATO allies for help if necessary.

Tusk said that in the strikes, the Russian military used new jet-powered drones whose range and accuracy “are worrying.”

Overnight on September 12–13, Russian forces launched drone attacks on a gas station near the Yahodyn border crossing and a passenger train on the Kyiv–Warsaw rail line. Two people were injured in the strike on the gas station, Suspilne said. No one was injured in the strike on the train. The train crew had received a drone warning and evacuated the passengers. Another train carrying Western politicians returning from Ukraine was near the train struck by the drone. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes had targeted “railway infrastructure facilities used to transport military cargo from European countries.”