Poland Says Rail Explosion Was ‘Unprecedented Act of Sabotage’
A passenger train was forced to make an emergency stop after damage was spotted on tracks
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described a rail network explosion near the Ukraine border as an “unprecedented act of sabotage.”
A passenger train was forced to stop after track damage, with additional damage found elsewhere on the crucial aid route to Ukraine.
The incident follows a series of suspected Russian drone disruptions across central and Eastern Europe.
WARSAW—Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described an explosion on the country’s rail network near the Ukraine border as an “unprecedented act of sabotage,” casting it among a string of suspected attacks targeting European infrastructure in recent months.
A passenger train traveling between Warsaw and the eastern city of Lublin was forced to make an emergency stop early Sunday after damage was spotted on the tracks. The route is a crucial part of the network for delivering aid to Ukraine.
“Blowing up the rail track on the Warsaw-Lublin route is an unprecedented act of sabotage targeting directly the security of the Polish state and its civilians,” Tusk said in a social-media post Monday.
The goal of the sabotage was to blow up the train, Tusk said, adding that additional damage had been identified elsewhere on the route. “We will catch the perpetrators, regardless of who their backers are,” he added. The incident occurred near the village of Mika, roughly 62 miles south of the capital.
In a separate incident further down the track, a train carrying 475 passengers was forced to stop Sunday evening after damage to an overhead line shattered the windows in one of the carriages, according to local authorities. There was a heavy police presence on the line Monday as officers conducted inspections.
The suspected attack comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region. In recent weeks, a series of suspected Russian drones has disrupted airports, grounded flights and put citizens on edge across Central and Eastern Europe, thrusting some countries into a gray-zone conflict with Moscow.
In September, NATO-member warplanes shot down several Russian drones over Poland, the first time the alliance has engaged Russian drones over a member’s territory after what officials contend was a test of its defenses by Moscow.
Sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns have allowed Russia to assert itself in the region without directly entering a war with members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement in acts of sabotage or drone incursions in Europe.
While disruption from drones has become a regular occurrence, a physical attack on Poland’s critical infrastructure would mark a serious escalation.
Early on in the war in Ukraine, Poland’s security agency detained Russian agents installing cameras along Poland’s rail lines and the critical cargo of weapons they carried into Ukraine. Many arms cargoes were struck once they crossed the border.
Gen. Wiesław Kukuła, chief of the general staff of the Polish Army, called the sabotage an act of aggression. “The enemy is preparing for war, setting the conditions for an act of aggression on Poland,” Kukuła said Monday on the country’s state-run radio station.