Ukraine Russia Sabotage Hits Polish Rail

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that two Ukrainian citizens who had long worked for Russian

sarah

Nov 18, 2025 - 21:22

Ukraine Russia Sabotage Hits Polish Rail

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that two Ukrainian citizens who had long worked for Russian intelligence have been identified as suspects behind two acts of sabotage on Poland's rail network.

Tusk told the Polish parliament that one of the suspects has already been convicted in absentia for acts of sabotage in Ukraine.

On Monday, he visited the site of an explosion near Micka, southeast of Warsaw, that damaged a railway line leading to the Ukrainian border over the weekend, calling it "an unprecedented act of sabotage."

Another incident on Monday near Pulawy caused a packed train to suddenly stop and overhead cables were found damaged.

Polish authorities initially said it was highly likely that a "foreign service" had ordered the two acts of sabotage on the Warsaw-Lublin railway line.

A spokesman for Poland's Minister of Special Services then said on Tuesday that "everything points to Russian special services."

Russia has not yet publicly commented on these allegations.

Tusk told lawmakers, "The goal was to cause a train accident."

The Polish Prime Minister said he would not name the two suspects as it could complicate the operation, although he told parliament that one was living in Belarus and the other was a resident of eastern Ukraine.

He further stated that both suspects had arrived in Poland from Belarus during the autumn and had now returned to the country via the border crossing at Terespol in the far southwest of Belarus, near the Ukrainian border.

Tusk said that a military-grade C4 explosive device detonated near the village of Mika at around 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on November 15.

The explosion, which occurred while a freight train was passing, caused minor damage to the floor of a wagon. It was captured on CCTV.

Tusk said the train driver was unaware of the incident.

He said a previous attempt to derail a train by placing steel clamps on the tracks had failed.

Tusk said a second sabotage incident occurred on November 17, when a train carrying 475 passengers was forced to suddenly brake due to damaged railway infrastructure.

The Prime Minister also said he would issue an order to raise the alert level on some railway lines on Tuesday.

He said that since the beginning of last year, 55 people have been detained on suspicion of aiding, preparing, or carrying out sabotage activities, and 23 of them are in custody.

Tusk further stated that Russia's aim was to spread panic and incite anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Polish society, where more than one million Ukrainian war refugees live.

He said, "I want to emphasize that the Russian authorities are concerned not only about the direct impact of such actions, but also about the social and political consequences of this action."

"This certainly means chaos, anarchy, panic, speculation, and uncertainty."

Poland is a member of both NATO and the European Union, and since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, its railway network has become crucial for delivering aid supplies to Ukraine.

In September, Tusk said that Polish and other NATO aircraft had shot down three Russian drones in Polish airspace during overnight attacks on Ukraine.

At the time, he said authorities had recorded 19 drone incursions, some of which flew so deep that four airports, including Warsaw's main hub Chopin, had to be temporarily closed.

The Russian Defense Ministry responded that there were "no plans" to target installations on Polish soil.