He added that the suspects had long been operating with Russian intelligence and that one had been convicted by a court in the Ukrainian city of Lviv in May this year for sabotage. The second suspect is from the Russian-occupied Donbas region whom Tusk said crossed from Belarus into Poland together with the first suspect this fall. Two sections of the Warsaw to Lublin line, considered a strategic link between Poland’s capital and the eastern regions bordering Ukraine, were targeted by covert operations over the weekend. Tracks were blown up near the village of Mika, some 90 kilometers south of Warsaw, officials said, with local residents reporting that they heard a blast on Saturday night. Further south in the Lublin region, rails were subject to tampering and a power line was also reportedly cut. ‘Most serious incident’ Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Tusk repeated his assertion that the perpetrators were seeking to cause a disaster on the rails. “We are dealing with an unprecedented event. This is perhaps the most serious situation—in the context of Poland’s security—since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine,” the prime minister said. He said the suspects cannot be named because of ongoing operations but insisted they were linked to Russian special services. Since January 2024, a total of 55 people have been detained over alleged sabotage, with each suspect linked to Moscow, Tusk added. Tusk said he would ask the foreign ministry to take action to try to bring the suspects in this week’s incidents back to Poland to face justice. “The Russian authorities care not only about the direct effect of such actions but also about the social and political consequences. That is: disorganization, chaos, panic, speculation, uncertainty,” the prime minister said. Alert level raised The alert level on Poland’s railways is also set to be raised from two to three on certain lines given the risk of “terrorist activities” highlighted by the weekend’s events. Tusk said the emergency services first received reports of an explosion in Mika at around 9:40 p.m. on Saturday, but police did not find the source of the sound at that time. The incident at Mika, the prime minister said, involved a “military-grade C4 explosive device” that “was detonated using an initiating device connected to a 300-meter-long electrical cable.” He said that this load exploded during the passage of a freight train on the Warsaw-Puławy route, but its impact was so minor that the driver “did not even notice.” Minor damage was recorded to a wagon floor. The incident near Gołąb, close to Puławy in the Lublin region, occurred earlier, Tusk said. This “involved installing a steel clamp on the track, which was likely intended to derail the train,” the prime minister said. He added that this attempt "fortunately turned out to be completely ineffective." “In both cases, we are certain that these were intentional actions and their aim was to cause a railway disaster,” Tusk said. He added that this attempt “fortunately turned out to be completely ineffective.”
