Russian intelligence behind blast on railway line to Ukraine, says Polish PM

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday (18 Nov) said that the Russian intelligence services orchestrated an explosion on a railway route to Ukraine, with the help of two Ukrainian nationals working as their agent, and they have fled to Belarus. The blast on the Warsaw-Lublin line, which connects the Polish capital to the Ukrainian border and was being used to transport aid, followed a wave of arson, sabotage and cyberattacks in Poland and other European countries since the start of the war in Ukraine.

"The identified perpetrators are two Ukrainian citizens who have been cooperating with Russian intelligence services for a long time. Their identities are known," Tusk told lawmakers in the parliament in Warsaw.

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On Saturday, an explosion damaged the tracks near the village of Mika, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Warsaw. The Warsaw-Lublin line connects the Polish capital to the Ukrainian border.

In a second incident near Pulawy, a steel clamp was installed on the track with the likely aim of derailing the train, Tusk said. He added that a mobile phone attached to a power bank had been set up nearby in order to record what happened.

Russia repeatedly denied being responsible for the act of sabotage. On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the allegation of involvement and accused Polish authorities of "Russophobia"

"Russia is accused of all manifestations of the hybrid and direct war that is taking place," Peskov told a Russian state television reporter.

"In Poland, let's say, everyone is trying to run ahead of the European locomotive in this regard. And Russophobia, of course, is flourishing there."

Earlier, The Polish PM called the railway blast "an unprecedented act of sabotage" "an unprecedented act of sabotage", and vowed to catch those responsible "regardless of who their backers are".