An explosion on a railway track on a route to Ukraine is an “unprecedented act of sabotage”, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says, as authorities launch a probe into a separate but similar incident.
The blast on the Warsaw-Lublin line follows a wave of arson, sabotage and cyber attacks that has hit Poland and other European countries since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Warsaw has in the past held Russia responsible, saying Poland has become one of Moscow’s biggest targets due to its role as a hub for aid to Kyiv. Russia has repeatedly denied being responsible for acts of sabotage.
“The blowing up of the railway track on the Warsaw-Lublin route is an unprecedented act of sabotage aimed at the security of the Polish state and its citizens,” Mr Tusk wrote on X.
“An investigation is underway. Just like in previous cases of this kind, we will catch the perpetrators, regardless of who their backers are.”
The railway line in Mika is used to transport vital supplies to Ukraine. (KPRM/Handout via Reuters)
Local police said on Sunday, local time, that a train driver had reported damage on the railway line, but authorities were not able to immediately confirm that it was a result of sabotage.
“This route is also used to transport weapons to Ukraine,” Mr Tusk said in a video address.
“Fortunately, no tragedy occurred, but the legal implications are very serious,” he added.
A second train was damaged separately on Sunday and the incident is under investigation, Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said.
A train on the Świnoujście-Rzeszów route was forced to stop Sunday night about 50 km from Lublin, after the overhead electrical cables that powered the train were damaged, he said in a statement on Monday.
There were 475 passengers on board but no injuries were reported.
Polish Special Services Minister Tomasz Siemoniak added during the same press conference that chances are very high that the people who conducted the sabotage were acting on orders of foreign intelligence services, without naming any specific country.
Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said the military was inspecting a 120 km stretch of track leading to the Ukrainian border.
Warsaw said in October that Poland and Romania had detained eight people suspected of planning sabotage on behalf of Russia.
Danish political parties hit by cyber attack
In a separate development, the websites of several Danish political parties were targeted on Monday in a cyber attack claimed by pro-Russians hackers on the eve of local and regional elections.
The sites of the Conservatives and the Red-Green Alliance were briefly unavailable on Monday morning, an AFP journalist noted.
The Copenhagen Post, an online newspaper covering Danish news in English, was also affected.
“Dear readers, our website is currently down and flashing a ‘502 — Bad Gateway’ error message,” it wrote on Instagram.
“We have been informed by the Danish Defence Intelligence Service that the likely cause is a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, with our coverage of the November 18 local elections making us a target.”
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DDoS attacks halt access to a website by overloading its servers with traffic.
Pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16) said on social media it was targeting the sites of several Danish political parties and public broadcaster DR.
But DR told AFP: “No incidents have been registered that have affected DR’s ability to operate normally.”
Last week, the same group claimed responsibility for cyber attacks on several Danish municipalities, government websites and a defence company.
In a risk analysis ahead of the local elections, Denmark’s intelligence service said in early November there was a high likelihood of cyber attacks.
“It is likely that groups of pro-Russian hackers will carry out DDoS attacks against websites linked to the elections,” it said.
The military intelligence service meanwhile told AFP that the situation was being followed closely by the country’s Civil Protection Agency, which did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Reuters/AP/AFP
