Unknown perpetrators carried out two acts of sabotage in Poland in a single day on a railway line leading to the Ukrainian border. The first incident occurred near the town of Plawny, and the second later that day near the Mika station.
On Monday, November 17, someone threw a long metal chain onto the overhead power lines, causing a short circuit. As a result, a passenger train’s movement was halted. At the time, 475 passengers were on board.
No one was injured, though the snapped wire shattered the window of one of the carriages. The incident also triggered further restrictions on rail traffic along the Warsaw–Lublin route. Authorities initially treated it as an act of vandalism.
Later the same day, an explosion occurred near the Mika station. The train driver promptly reported irregularities in the rail infrastructure.
“At the moment of the incident, two passengers and several members of the train crew were on board,”
the police of Poland’s Masovian Voivodeship stated.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed the railway incident, adding that the explosion of track components might have been an organized act of sabotage. On the government’s official platform, he described the events as an unprecedented “act of sabotage.”
“It cannot be ruled out that we are dealing with an act of sabotage," Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland said.
The prime minister stressed that the “act of sabotage” was directed specifically against Poland’s security and the safety of its citizens, adding that this railway line is of critical importance for deliveries of assistance to Ukraine.
“We will catch the perpetrators, whoever they are," Tusk added.
Shortly before these events, Tusk announced that law enforcement had detained eight individuals suspected of preparing acts of sabotage on Polish territory. He did not specify which incidents the arrests were linked to.
Calls for Stronger Measures and Western Unity
Following the latest sabotage attempt, Polish general and former commander of the GROM special forces unit Roman Polko spoke out. He urged the United States to supply Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles.
He argued that such deliveries could force Russia to experience the “weight of the war.”
“We cannot bury our heads in the sand; we must act decisively and effectively.”
— Roman Polko, Polish General
The general also pointed out that, in light of the recent sabotage across Europe, Western nations suffer from insufficient solidarity within the European Union and NATO. According to him, the need for unified pressure on Russia must be explained above all to the prime ministers of Hungary and Slovakia. Viktor Orban and Robert Fico, he said, were “Trojan horses in Europe.”
