Poland: Prime minister claims explosion of railway line to Ukraine is ‘sabotage’

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reported Monday that an explosion affected a railway line used to transport aid to Ukraine, an ally of Poland, and described it as an "unprecedented act of sabotage." No one was injured in the incident.

The prime minister added on X that the damage, discovered Sunday by authorities, constituted an attack "targeting directly the security of the Polish state and its civilians."

According to Tusk, the damage was "probably intended to derail a train." An accident was avoided thanks to the fact that the engineer alerted specialized services of "anomalies in the railway infrastructure" before stopping all train traffic.

A line supplying aid to Ukraine

The explosion occurred on the railway line linking Warsaw with the Polish city of Lublin and connecting to a line serving Ukraine.

"This route is also vitally important for sending aid to Ukraine," the prime minister added after visiting the site of the incident in Mika, 62 miles southeast of the capital.

Donald Tusk: "We will catch the perpetrators"

The prime minister also reported another act of sabotage occurred on the same line, in which the windows of a carriage were broken, most likely due to a damaged rail.

Police and special services immediately launched an investigation. "We will catch the perpetrators, whoever they are," the prime minister said.

Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, Poland, a member of the NATO and the European Union (E.U.), claims to have been the target of sabotage attempts allegedly orchestrated by the Kremlin.