Petraeus Has Close Call With 'Barbaric' Russian Strike

David Petraeus' latest trip to Ukraine came uncomfortably close to the war he has long analyzed from afar. The ex-CIA chief and retired four-star general was on a train near Ukraine's border with Poland on Sunday when Russian drones buzzed overhead, prompting an evacuation, reports the New York Times. Moments later, an explosive drone slammed into the locomotive of a neighboring train. No casualties were reported because that train also had been evacuated. "This is the act of a truly barbaric leader trying to terrorize Ukrainian civilians," said Petraeus, referring to Vladimir Putin. He later reboarded and crossed safely into Poland.

The incident at Yahodyn station unfolded shortly after a separate train carrying visiting European diplomats—including former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson—had left the station, notes the BBC. The Ukraine railway system suspects that train, which departed ahead of schedule, might have been the main target. "I don't know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning," Johnson wrote in a post on X. Russian officials did not immediately comment on the attack, but a deliberate strike on European and American officials would be seen as a major escalation.