Former UK premier calls for unfreezing Russian assets after evacuating train over drone strike

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday called for more air defense support for Ukraine and the unfreezing of Russian assets after he was forced to evacuate a train due to a Russian drone strike near Poland.

"I don't know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning," Johnson wrote on US social media platform X.

He called the attack "kind of random and senseless," which he said Ukrainians "are enduring every day, even on civilian railways."

Johnson's remarks came after German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that a privately chartered train traveling from Kyiv toward Poland earlier Sunday with European officials as well as Johnson aboard was evacuated due to a Russian drone attack nearby.

"When are we going to give them the air defences they need? Why won't we unfreeze Putin's cash and give it to Ukraine," said Johnson, recalling that there is more than €140 billion ($162 billion) in a Belgian bank account — and about £10 billion ($13.5 billion) in London.

He said: "The Ukrainians are going to win — that much was clear from the last three days in their wonderful country."

However, Johnson noted that the "dreadful war" would be over much faster if they all got serious and gave Ukraine what it needed and deserved.