Two Ukrainian citizens who have long worked for Russian intelligence have been identified as the suspects behind two acts of sabotage on Poland’s railway network, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
One of the suspects had already been convicted in absentia for acts of sabotage in Ukraine, Tusk told the Polish parliament.
On Monday he visited the site of an explosion near Mika, southeast of Warsaw, that damaged the railway line leading to the Ukrainian border at the weekend, calling it “an unprecedented act of sabotage.”
Another incident further along the line, near Pulawy, on Monday forced a packed train to suddenly stop and damage to overhead cables was found.
Polish authorities had initially said it was highly likely that the two acts of sabotage on the Warsaw-Lublin railway line had been ordered by a “foreign service.”
Then a spokesman for Poland’s special services minister said Tuesday that “everything indicates that these are Russian special services.”
Russia has not yet commented publicly on the allegations.
“The goal was to cause a railway catastrophe,” Tusk told parliamentarians.
The Polish prime minister said he would not reveal the names of the two suspects because this could complicate the operation, although he told parliament that one lived in Belarus and the other resided in eastern Ukraine.
Both suspects had crossed into Poland from Belarus in the autumn and had now returned through the Terespol border crossing in the southwestern corner of Belarus, near the border with Ukraine, he added.
Tusk said a C4 military-grade explosive device detonated on Nov. 15 at around 9:00 p.m. local time (20:00 GMT) near the village of Mika.
The explosion, which occurred as a freight train was passing, caused minor damage to the floor of a carriage. It was captured on CCTV.
Tusk said the train driver didn’t even notice the incident.
An earlier attempt to derail a train by placing a steel clamp on the rail had failed, he said.
The second act of sabotage, on Nov. 17, involved a train carrying 475 passengers having to stop suddenly due to damage to rail infrastructure, Tusk said.
The prime minister also said he would issue an order later on Tuesday to raise the alert level on certain railway lines.
Poland is a member state of NATO and the EU, and its rail network has become vital for moving aid supplies to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
