Yalta European Strategy

Now, before we move into our next item, I want to thank Trevor Reed, an Eastern Europe subject matter expert who spoke with me last night and provided Ford Observer with a firsthand account of what happened recently near the Ukraine-Polish border.

Now, Russian drones conducted multiple strikes around the Yahudin-Ukraine border crossing on 13 September as Western officials and attendees departed the Yalta European Strategy or the YES conference in Kiev.

One drone struck a truck and gas station near the Polish border, temporarily suspending border operations, while another struck a passenger train two kilometers from the Polish border.

A special diplomatic train carrying various VIPs had passed shortly before, while another train carrying former CIA Director Petraeus remained in Yahudin.

A near-simultaneous Russian drone strike also hit a truck near a petrol station close to the Yehodon-Dorusk crossing, with debris setting the station and several trucks ablaze.

The Yehoden train station strike occurred just over an hour after a separate diplomatic train departed the station, carrying senior Western officials who had attended the Yalta European Strategy, YES war summit in Kiev.

Passengers included former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, UK National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, Gunther Salter, a senior advisor to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Fabrizio Saggio, a diplomatic advisor and National Security Advisor to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney.

Also on board was Robin Wagner, a Green Party deputy in Germany's Bundestag.

although exact departure times have not been made public it was reported that the diplomatic train's departure from jahodden was brought forward due to the increased threat of drone strikes the previous day a train was hit by a drone strike at latusk rail station in vollen oblast about eighty miles away Moreover, the Yehodan drone attack closely follows an incident on September the 8th, when two Russian drones reportedly entered Moldovan airspace as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's aircraft was preparing to depart Krasynau for Oslo to attend the funeral of King Harald V.

His departure was delayed while Moldovan authorities closed the airspace.

The Yalta European Strategy Summit.

Moscow would have been well aware that the train carrying Johnson and other Western officials was chartered by the Yes Conference, with AP News reporting it was, quote, a diplomatic train.

Yes, let's turn to YES.

So to give it its proper name, the Yalta European Strategy Annual Conference, held in Ukraine since 2004.

Many significant players were there, as you just said.

Let's play you some highlights, starting with these remarks by Margus Tsahkna, Estonia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, which gives you a flavor of some of the arguments made, and I think more importantly, the tone.

They are state terrorists." And that's what he's saying while shoulder to shoulder with China, with Russia, with India, with the other BRICS nations that we've been sharing with you.

And then you had Jared Kushner this morning, who was at the Yalta European Strategy meeting, and he Zoomed in.

And he was asked, "So are you gonna come back to Kyiv, Kushner?" And Kushner's like, "Well, hopefully soon.

Um, we're, we're really not into performative diplomacy." [laughs] Okay, this is good, this...