Polish PM says two Ukrainians working for Russian intelligence behind weekend railway blast

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday that two Ukrainian citizens working for Russian intelligence were behind an explosion on train tracks in the east of the country at the weekend, Polish radio station RMF has reported. 

Both Ukrainians had arrived in Poland from Belarus via the border crossing between Terespol and Brest, Tusk said, one of only two border crossings open until the Polish authorities reopened additional checkpoints on Monday. After causing the explosion on the tracks near the town of Mika, they returned to Belarus.

Tusk said that one of the suspects had previously been tried for similar sabotage in the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine, RMF continued. The second man, he said, came from occupied Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, though he disclosed no further details.

The explosion on the railway line connecting the capital, Warsaw, with the city of Lublin in the southeast of the country occurred on Sunday between Życzyn and Mika, approximately 100km west of the border with Belarus. Tusk said a criminal case had been opened after an explosive device detonated on the tracks, damaging the rails.

In an interview with Polish radio station Jedynka on Monday, Wiesław Kukuła, the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, said the incident was a sign the enemy was “starting to prepare for war”.

If proven to be an incident of Russian sabotage, it would mark a serious escalation against Poland. In the past three months, the country has seen repeated invasions of its air space by Russian drones as a fresh wave of Russia-linked hybrid activity has swept Europe this autumn.