Poland learned more about the unprecedented act of sabotage affecting the railway on Sunday. The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, provided details this Tuesday, November 18 regarding the people suspected of being involved in the deliberate explosion on the Warsaw-Lublin line: “The identified perpetrators are two Ukrainian nationals who have long operated and collaborated with Russian intelligence services.”also added that “Their identity is known” but will not be revealed for now.
One of those involved was sentenced in May “by the Lviv court in absentia for sabotage”, determine the Prime Minister. The other, a resident of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, was a “local prosecutor’s office employee”. Not long after the incident, the two suspects reportedly left Poland for Belarus.
The dangers have now been avoided: “these people left Poland and went to Belarus”, trying to convince the Prime Minister. “The head of the Internal Security Agency and the Minister of the Interior have asked me to set alert level three, Charlie, because of the terrorist threat, still warns Donald Tusk. This level will apply to certain railway lines, while the rest of the region will remain under the second alert level. “Russian service measures are intensifying across Europe”, he regretted it, admitting he wanted to use Polish soldiers for it “protecting key infrastructure such as trains”.
Because the target line is important: it leads directly from the Polish capital to the Ukrainian border, which makes it a strategic axis for sending Western aid to Volodymyr Zelensky’s country which Russia has attacked since 2022. Therefore, it could be targeted elsewhere. If the attack does not cause any casualties, the Prime Minister assured us: “Their goal is to cause a train disaster.”
Several European leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriï Sybiga, expressed solidarity with Poland on Monday after the incident was made public.
Andrïï Sybiga suggests that this may be their goal “to test the reaction” Poland and its allies. In recent years, Poland has limited the presence of Russian diplomats on its territory, ordering the closure of two Russian consulates and arresting 55 people suspected of acting on behalf of Moscow.
Suspected by Warsaw of being the mastermind of these two acts of sabotage, the Kremlin reacted on Tuesday: “Russia is accused of any form of hybrid or outright war going on and in Poland they are very enthusiastic about this. Russophobia is thriving there in all its glory.said his spokesman, Dmitri Peskov. However, he did not immediately deny Poland’s accusations.
According to Donald Tusk, the names of the two suspects are expected to be released later today.
Renew at 16:01. with the addition of the Kremlin’s reaction.
