Poland Sees 'Unprecedented Sabotage' in Rail Explosion

A prime route for sending aid to Ukraine appears to have been targeted in what Poland is calling a deliberate attack. An explosion damaged a key railway line near the Ukrainian border over the weekend, forcing a passenger train to make an emergency stop, reports the Wall Street Journal. Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the incident "an unprecedented act of sabotage," asserting that the saboteurs intended to blow up a train, per the New York Times. In another suspicious incident elsewhere on the same Warsaw-Lublin track, a damaged overhead cable forced a different train to stop.

"We will catch the perpetrators, regardless of who their backers are," said Tusk. He did not name names, but Russia has previously been blamed for similar acts since the war with Ukraine began. Poland is a staunch backer of Ukraine. In one high-profile incident, NATO warplanes shot down Russian drones over Poland, an event officials interpreted as a test of the alliance's defenses by Moscow.

Russia has also been blamed for drone incursions that have disrupted airports across central and eastern Europe. And Polish authorities previously accused Moscow of orchestrating other attacks, including a major fire at a Warsaw shopping center last year. Such tactics are increasingly viewed as part of Russia's strategy to pressure the region without directly confronting NATO.