‘I Will Go Back to Ukraine at the Next Opportunity’ – Dan Fried After Russian Train Strike

A Russian drone strike on a passenger train near Ukraine’s border with Poland, shortly after a diplomatic train carrying senior Western officials passed through, was an attempt to intimidate Ukraine’s supporters, former US Ambassador Daniel Fried told Kyiv Post. Fried, who served as US envoy to Poland from 1997 to 2000, said the attack was meant to show Western officials they were not beyond Moscow’s reach.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “Putin wants to send the message that Russia will not stop and that Ukraine’s Western friends can be targeted. They are not immune,” Fried said. But he doubted that the tactic would succeed. Fried pointed to the 22nd annual Yalta European Strategy (YES) conference, held despite the growing threat from Russian attacks. “My colleagues and friends who went to the YES conference went there knowing perfectly well that the threats and attacks on Kyiv are much greater than they were two months ago when I was last in Ukraine,” he said. “But they went anyway. This will not deter them.” The strike hit a locomotive near the Yahodyn border crossing, roughly two kilometers from Poland. Ukraine’s state railway operator said it was “highly probable” that a diplomatic train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt and other European officials was the intended target. Other Topics of Interest Merz Vows Continued Support for Ukraine as Pro-Russian AfD Secures Victory Germany’s chancellor said backing Kyiv remains a security imperative despite domestic pressure after his party’s election defeat. Former CIA Director David Petraeus was aboard a separate train still at Yahodyn when the drone struck. ‘Putin is testing us’ Fried described the attack so close to NATO territory as “particularly brazen,” saying Moscow was trying to stoke fears that continued support for Kyiv could lead to a wider confrontation. “He is trying to show those forces in the West who are indifferent to Ukraine that the threat of escalation is real,” Fried said. He argued that past Western hesitation gives Moscow reason to believe such pressure could succeed. “Putin is not acting irrationally in his own frame of reference. I’m afraid he is acting rationally because there is a reasonable chance that the West will back off,” Fried said. “It would be a mistake to give in to Putin’s pressure.” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Monday that strikes so close to NATO territory showed Putin’s “desperation,” while pledging continued support for Ukraine. Could Johnson have been singled out? Asked whether Johnson and other prominent Western figures could have been deliberately singled out because of personal grudges, Fried said there was not enough evidence to confirm it. “I can’t confirm that, but I wouldn’t rule it out,” Fried said. “This is a way of letting people know that they are potential targets, which is something the Putin team does.” Putin has repeatedly blamed Johnson for the collapse of the 2022 Istanbul negotiations, accusing the then-British prime minister of persuading Kyiv not to reach an agreement with Moscow. Johnson has ridiculed that account as Russian propaganda. “It doesn’t surprise me. It doesn’t shock me,” Fried said. “We have to get used to this.” Don’t Back Off – Double Down The strike has not changed Fried’s willingness to return to Ukraine. Asked whether he would take the same railway route after the attack, Fried said he might change how he travels – but not whether he goes. “I will go to Ukraine at the next opportunity,” he said. “Whether I take the train or drive is an irrelevant detail.” Sevinj OsmanqiziSevinj Osmanqizi is an experienced journalist who writes extensively for Kyiv Post on foreign policy, international security and geopolitics. Based in Washington, D.C., her work focuses on Ukraine, Russia’s war and the broader post-Soviet space.