Sikorski to implement PM's order to extradite rail sabotage suspects
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Tuesday he would launch diplomatic steps ordered by Prime Minister Donald Tusk to bring back to Poland the suspects behind the railway sabotage after they fled the country.
The top diplomat's announcement came hours after Tusk said Warsaw had identified two Ukrainian men, who have long worked for Russian intelligence, as the main suspects behind the rail sabotage incidents carried out over the weekend. Both suspects entered Poland from Belarus and are known to have returned there.
Tusk also said on Tuesday that he requested Sikorski to take immediate diplomatic action to return the men to Poland.
"Now, I am going to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to carry out what the prime minister announced, which is the process of summoning Russia and Belarus in order to gain control over the perpetrators," Sikorski told reporters as he was leaving the Sejm, the lower house of parliament.
The first explosion occurred on Saturday, destroying a section of track between Warsaw and the eastern city of Lublin. The second incident took place on Sunday near the eastern town of Pulawy in the Lublin province, where a steel clamp installed on the track forced a train carrying 475 passengers to stop and damaged the overhead cables. Tusk, who visited the site on Monday, said a power bank and a mobile phone were found nearby, apparently intended to record the blast.
The prime minister called the incidents "an unprecedented act of sabotage" and added on Tuesday that "this is perhaps the most serious situation" in terms of Poland's security "since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine."
Warsaw has long accused Russia of orchestrating acts of sabotage and conducting a "hybrid" campaign, including espionage, against Poland and other European countries. The Kremlin has denied involvement in previous incidents and repeated that stance on Tuesday in response to the recent railway blasts. (PAP)
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