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Poland has identified two Ukrainian citizens working for Russian intelligence as the prime suspects behind coordinated sabotage attacks on the country's rail network that brought a passenger train to an emergency stop and damaged a freight line near the Ukrainian border, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced Tuesday.
One of the suspects has already been convicted in absentia of sabotage acts in Ukraine, Tusk told parliament, adding that both individuals crossed into Poland from Belarus during the autumn before returning there after the incidents. The Polish leader said he would not publicly name the suspects as doing so could hamper ongoing operations, though he confirmed one resides in Belarus while the other lives in eastern Ukraine.
"The goal was to cause a rail catastrophe," Tusk said, describing Russia's motivation as an attempt to sow panic and inflame anti-Ukrainian sentiment in a nation hosting more than one million Ukrainian war refugees.
The Kremlin swiftly dismissed the allegations. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media it would have been "really strange" if Russia hadn't been blamed, characterizing the accusation as evidence that "Russophobia is certainly rampant" in Poland.
The first attack occurred on November 15 at approximately 9 p.m. local time near the village of Mika, southeast of Warsaw. A military-grade C4 explosive device detonated as a freight train passed along the Warsaw-Lublin line, causing minor damage to a wagon floor. CCTV cameras captured the explosion, though Tusk noted the train driver didn't even notice the incident. An earlier sabotage attempt using a steel clamp placed on the rail had failed, the prime minister said.
Two days later, on Nov. 17, damaged overhead cables near Pulawy forced a train carrying 475 passengers to brake suddenly. A spokesman for Poland's special services minister said Tuesday that "everything points to them being Russian special services."
Tusk announced he would issue an order later Tuesday to raise the alert level on certain railway lines. He revealed that since the start of last year, Polish authorities have detained 55 people on suspicion of assisting, preparing or committing acts of sabotage, with 23 remanded in custody.
Both suspects entered Poland through its eastern border with Belarus and exited through the Terespol crossing in southwestern Belarus, near the Ukrainian border, according to the prime minister.
Poland's position as both a NATO and European Union member state has made its railway network vital for transporting aid supplies into Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The targeting of this infrastructure represents what Tusk characterized as part of a broader campaign to create "disorganization, chaos, panic, speculation and uncertainty."
"I want to emphasize that what the Russian authorities care about is not only the direct effect of this type of action, but also the social and political consequences of the fact that this action is taking place," he told lawmakers.
The incidents follow a series of security concerns along Poland's eastern border. In September, Tusk reported that three Russian drones had been shot down by Polish and other NATO aircraft in Polish airspace during overnight attacks on Ukraine, part of 19 recorded drone incursions that temporarily closed four airports, including Warsaw's main Chopin hub. Russia's defense ministry responded at the time by saying there had been "no plans" to target facilities on Polish soil.
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