Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed on Friday, 16 October, that a Russian drone hit a locomotive with wagons and tank cars on the Ukrainian side, 6–7 km from the Polish border. Polish aircraft were scrambled twice during the night.
The minister spoke about the incident at a press conference after a night he described as “very difficult”. As media, including Zero.pl and Dziennik.pl, report, he said: “A drone hit a locomotive with wagons, with tank cars, 6–7 km from the Polish border on the Ukrainian side, but that is already very close”. He added that vigilance must be complete and that the situation is “very serious”. According to reports, he also stressed that border crossings are once again a target of attacks.
Alerts and scrambled aircraft
The defence minister said Polish aircraft were scrambled twice during the night. Residents of Lublin Voivodeship received RCB alerts; according to Zero.pl there were three, and the last one was cancelled just before 6 a.m. The information provided does not indicate that Polish airspace was violated.
Scale of the Russian attack
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, as cited by Zero.pl via Ukrainska Pravda, Russia used 149 strike drones during the night of 15 to 16 October. By morning, air defences had shot down or jammed 114 of them, including 77 jet-powered drones. Strikes were recorded in 24 locations. Kosiniak-Kamysz said hundreds of aircraft were maneuvering over Ukraine throughout the night and morning, and that Ukrainians destroyed more than 30 jet-powered drones.
Not the first such incident
Similar incidents near the border have happened before. At the end of September, a drone exploded about 2 km from the Dorohusk–Jagodzin crossing. According to media citing Ukrainian railways, in September a drone hit the locomotive of a Kyiv–Warsaw train 2 km from the border. The minister also assured at that time that the border had not been violated.
What it means
For residents of the Lublin region, this means possible further RCB alerts and the noise of scrambled fighter jets, including a possible sonic boom when they break the sound barrier. Strikes on infrastructure near border crossings may also disrupt border traffic and rail transport with Ukraine. As of publication, it has not been reported whether the incident affected train schedules or the operation of border crossings.
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