Two Ukrainian citizens who have long worked for Russian secret services have been identified as suspects in two acts of sabotage on the Polish railway network, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
One of the two suspects had already been convicted in absentia of acts of sabotage in western Ukraine, Tusk told the Polish parliament, the Sejm.
Tusk on Monday visited the scene of an explosion near Mika, southeast of Warsaw, which damaged the railway line leading to the Ukrainian border, calling it an “unprecedented act of sabotage.”
Another incident further down the line, near Pulawy, forced a crowded train to stop abruptly and overhead cables were damaged.
Polish authorities had initially stated that there was a very good chance that the acts of sabotage had been ordered by a “foreign service”.
But a spokesman for Poland’s special services minister said Tuesday that “everything indicates that these are Russian special services.”
“The goal was to cause a train disaster,” Tusk told MPs.
Poland’s prime minister said he would not release the names of the two suspects because it could complicate the operation, but he told parliament that one lived in Belarus and the other in eastern Ukraine.
The two suspects had entered Poland from Belarus during the autumn and had now returned via the Terespol border crossing in the far southwest of Belarus, near the Ukrainian border, he added.
Poland is a member of both NATO and the EU, and its rail network has become vital for delivering aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
