Polish rail line explosion was was sabotage, according to Prime Minister Donald Tusk
Saboteurs tried to “blow up a train” on a Polish railway that is important for delivering aid to Ukraine, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Monday after authorities identified blast damage on tracks in the country’s east.
“There is no doubt that we are dealing with an act of sabotage,” Mr Tusk said in a video from the site of the blast, near the midpoint of a rail line between Warsaw, the capital, and Lublin, an eastern city close to the border with Ukraine.
The explosion occurred Saturday evening. Residents in the area of the village Mika “reported hearing a blast,” Marcin Kierwinski, the interior minister, told reporters Monday.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Early Sunday, a train driver had reported a noticeable unevenness on the tracks.
It was not clear who was responsible or why Polish authorities believed it was intended to take out a train. An “explosive device” destroyed the tracks, but no one was injured, Mr Tusk said.
The incident, which Mr Tusk called “unprecedented,” comes during a period of high alert in Poland, which has been one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Although Poland did not directly implicate Russia in the railway blast, Moscow has been accused of various acts of sabotage and destabilization since the start of the Ukraine war.
Mr Tusk said damage was also found on a different section of the same rail line, closer to Lublin, after what he said was an “attempt to destabilize and destroy the railway infrastructure, which could also have led to a train crash.”
Polish officials mentioned two other rail incidents from the weekend that were separate from the blast: a damaged overhead cable that forced a train with 475 passengers to come to an abrupt stop Sunday and a stray piece of metal found attached to the track. But it was not clear which of the two Mr Tusk was referencing.
Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the Polish defence minister, said on social media that the military would inspect about 120km along the train track that leads to the Polish border with Ukraine.
These disruptions come two months after NATO jets shot down a swarm of Russian drones in Polish airspace, in one of the most dramatic episodes in a series of Russian incursions in the skies over NATO member states and facilities. Also in September, Russian drones appeared over Romania and Russian jets crossed into Estonia, spiking anxiety across Europe.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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Originally published on The New York Times
