Poland says 2 Ukrainians working for Russia are suspected in railway
track blast
[November 19, 2025]
By CLAUDIA CIOBANU
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Two Ukrainian citizens working for Russia are
suspected of blowing up a railway line in Poland over the weekend, Prime
Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday.
Speaking to the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament, Tusk
said the two suspects had been collaborating with the Russian secret
services for a long time. He said their identities were known but could
not be revealed to the public because of ongoing investigations. The
pair have already left Poland, exiting via the Terespol border crossing
to Belarus, he said.
Tusk has described the weekend explosion on a rail line linking Poland’s
capital, Warsaw, to the border with Ukraine as an “unprecedented act of
sabotage.”
In a separate incident, which Polish officials also now confirm as
sabotage, power lines over another segment of the same rail line further
south were also damaged.
When asked to comment on Polish statements saying that two Ukrainian
nationals working for Russia had sabotaged a railway line, presidential
spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it would be “strange if Russia wasn’t
blamed first.”
“Russia is accused of all forms of hybrid and direct warfare taking
place in Poland,” Peskov told Russian media Tuesday. “In this regard,
Russophobia is, of course, in full bloom."
Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens
of attacks and other incidents across Europe since the invasion of
Ukraine more than three years ago, according to data collected by the
AP. Moscow’s goal, Western officials say, is to undermine support for
Ukraine, spark fear and divide European societies.
A meeting of the governmental National Security Committee took place in
Warsaw earlier Tuesday with the participation of military commanders,
heads of the intelligence services and a representative of the
president.
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Prime Minister Donald Tusk, second right, visits site of the rail
line Mika, that was damaged by sabotage, near Deblin, Poland,
Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/KPRM)
Army patrols have been sent to check the safety of railways and
other key infrastructure in the east of the country, the defense
minister said.
Polish prosecutors have initiated an investigation into “acts of
sabotage of a terrorist nature” directed against railway
infrastructure and committed for the benefit of foreign
intelligence.
“These actions brought about an immediate danger of a land traffic
disaster, threatening the lives and health of many people and
property on a large scale,” prosecutors said in a statement.
In the first incident, an explosion damaged the tracks near the
village of Mika, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of
Warsaw. In a separate incident, power lines were destroyed in the
area of Puławy, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Lublin. Trains
carrying passengers were forced to stop at both locations, but no
one was hurt.
“The explosion was most likely intended to blow up the train,” Tusk
said on Monday in reference to the Mika incident.
The damage caused at both locations has been repaired.
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Katie Marie Davies contributed from Manchester, England.
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