Poland Holds Firm After Russian Drone Strike Near Border

Russia's war against Ukraine is creeping ever closer to Polish territory. In the early hours of Sunday, September 13, Russian drones destroyed a gas station and the locomotive of a passenger train near the Dorohusk-Jahodyn border crossing between Poland and Ukraine. All passengers and crew were evacuated safely. The Polish government responded to the attack — the closest such strike yet to Polish soil — with a display of resolve rather than alarm.

Polish Government: Support for Ukraine Is Raison d'État

Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told private broadcaster TVN on Monday that border crossings were being targeted «to discourage countries from supporting Ukraine.» He was unequivocal: «Support for Ukraine is part of Poland's raison d'état.» Ukraine cannot afford to lose this war, he said, because Polish security would deteriorate if it did.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk convened a meeting with security-portfolio ministers and senior military officials. «We discussed further measures to strengthen the security of our borders,» he wrote on X. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski was more direct: «In response to Russian escalation, such as the shelling of the train in Ukraine near the Polish border, Poland will have a non-provocative but serious answer that strengthens security.»

Prominent Figures Were Nearby

At the time of the attack, two special trains were passing through the same area carrying high-profile attendees of a security conference in Kyiv who were heading westward. Among them were former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, and Günter Sautter, the foreign and security policy adviser to Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Polish political scientist Katarzyna Piskorska, who organizes the Warsaw Security Forum and was also on one of the trains, said their convoy was halted and passengers evacuated. «The Russians wanted to intimidate us but achieved the opposite — the participants of this incident want to support the attacked country even more strongly,» she told TVN. She added that morale in Ukraine was «the worst since the start of the war» and highlighted a new generation of jet-engine drones that reach targets far faster.

Public Support Eroding, But Government Holds Course

Despite this resolve, Polish public opinion has shifted markedly. A mid-July poll found 52% of Poles support continued military aid to Kyiv, with 45% opposed — compared with 77.5% in favor and 18.3% against after the 2022 invasion. Foreign Minister Sikorski called on Poland to double its support for Ukraine as a matter of self-protection. Defence Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz acknowledged a «radical shift in mood» and warned that «there are forces in Poland spreading Russian propaganda.» Piskorska was blunter: «Russia has won the propaganda war in Poland. Wake up.»