Poland identifies perpetrators of railway track blast
The Polish security services have identified two Ukrainian nationals acting on behalf of Russia involved in two rail sabotage acts, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced.
On Saturday, an explosion destroyed a railway track on the route between central Warsaw and the eastern city of Lublin, near the Mika railway station of Garwolin County. Later, near the town of Golab, Pulawy County, a damaged line caused a train carrying 475 passengers to suddenly stop.
Tusk told the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament, on Tuesday that the two identified perpetrators are "Ukrainian citizens who have been cooperating with the Russian services for a long time."
After the operation, they departed the country via the Terespol border crossing into Belarus.
One of the suspects was convicted by a Lviv court for acts of sabotage in May, while the second is a resident of Donbas. The men crossed from Belarus to Poland in the autumn of this year.
Tusk further said that the two acts of sabotage occurred at intervals. "The first involved installing a steel clamp on the track, which was likely intended to derail the train... this attempt "fortunately turned out to be completely ineffective."
He added that the event was allegedly supposed to be recorded by a mobile phone with a power bank installed on the tracks. The incident occurred on November 15 at 8:58 pm and was recorded by a surveillance camera.
"A military-grade C4 explosive device was detonated using an initiating device connected to a 300-metre-long electrical cable. Some quantity of the explosive material, which failed to detonate, was also recovered at the scene," Tusk said.
He added that the device exploded during the passing of a Warsaw-Pulawy freight train without derailing it, only causing minor damage to the floor of the carriage."
Tusk also said that Russian services have been behind all recent cases of sabotage in Poland and added that 55 suspects of sabotage have been detained so far and 23 of them arrested.
He recalled that the first act of sabotage took place in January 2024 in the southwestern city of Wroclaw. "It was built on the same principle. The same modus operandi that applies not only in Poland but also around the world," Tusk added.
The Russian authorities are interested not only in the immediate impact of such actions, but also in the social and political consequences. These include disorganisation, chaos, panic, speculation, and uncertainty, he further said.
Another goal, he added, is to "stir up the most radical anti-Ukrainian sentiment possible."
"Citizens of other countries, most often from Ukraine, are hired ...., although one Russian citizen is among those detained, does Russia directly reveal its intentions by hiring its citizens for such actions," Tusk argued.
He announced that he had tasked Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski with monitoring what happens online following the sabotage acts.
Tusk further said that Poland is in constant contact with the intelligence services of allied countries and everything possible will be done to prosecute the perpetrators of these acts of sabotage.
"This may be the most serious situation for the security of the Polish state since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine. A line has been crossed," he said.
Tusk also announced that, "in connection with terrorist threats", later in the day he would issue an order to introduce the third alert level, Charlie, on specific railway lines.
He added that he also asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs to take immediate diplomatic action to return to Poland those suspected of the terrorist attack.
On Tuesday, the Polish government's National Security Committee convened with military and security chiefs, as well as the presidential representative, to discuss recent security incidents on the Warsaw-Lublin railway line. (PAP)
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