Two Ukrainian citizens who have long worked for Russian intelligence have been identified as being behind two acts of sabotage on Poland’s rail network, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
Tusk told Poland’s parliament, the Sejm, that one of the two suspects had already been convicted in absentia of sabotage in western Ukraine.
On Monday, Tusk visited the site of an explosion near Myka, southeast of Warsaw, which damaged a railway line leading to the Ukrainian border, in what he called an “unprecedented act of destruction.”
Another incident occurred on the line near Pulawy, where a crowded train came to a sudden halt and an overhead cable appeared damaged.
Polish authorities initially said it was highly likely that a “foreign entity” had ordered the sabotage.
But a spokesman for Poland’s special services minister said Tuesday that “everything points to them being Russian special services.”
“The goal was to cause a rail disaster,” Tusk told lawmakers.
Poland’s prime minister said the names of the two suspects would not be released. One of them lives in Belarus and the other is a resident of eastern Ukraine, he told parliament.
Both suspects crossed from Belarus to Poland in the fall and returned there via the Terespol border crossing in far southwest Belarus, close to what is now the Ukrainian border, he added.
Poland is a NATO and European Union member, and its rail network has become critical for moving aid supplies to Ukraine since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
