Poland: Two Ukrainians 'cooperating with Russian services' behind bomb

Poland has claimed that two Ukrainians that were 'cooperating with Russian services' were behind the recent railway line bombing.

During a speech in parliament on Tuesday, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the pair 'have been operating and cooperating with Russian services for a long time', citing information from prosecutors and investigating authorities.   

He added that authorities are aware of the suspects' identities, but that they would not be made public pending further investigation.

It comes just days after an explosion caused damage to the Warsaw-Lublin line that connects the Polish capital to the Ukrainian border. 

Heavily hinting at suspected Russian involvement, Tusk said the perpetrators would be caught 'regardless of who their backers are'.

A train driver first reported irregularities on the track at around 7.40am local time on Sunday, prompting an inspection that revealed there was a damaged section near Mika, roughly 62 miles south-east of Warsaw.

Officials said it was unclear whether the explosion happened late on Saturday or early on Sunday.

Two passengers and several staff members were on the train but no injuries were reported, officials said.

A second train was damaged separately on Sunday and the incident is under investigation, minister of interior Marcin Kierwinski confirmed.

A train on the Swinoujscie to Rzeszow route was forced to stop on Sunday night about 31 miles from Lublin after the overhead electrical cables that powered the train were damaged, Kierwinski said in a statement.

There were 475 passengers on board but no injuries were reported.

Deputy interior minister Maciej Duszczyk appealed against jumping to conclusions about the identity of the perpetrators 'because Russia isn't so powerful that every arson, every situation of this kind, is provoked by Russia'.

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But Duszczyk also told Polsat television that 'this cannot be ruled out or ignored in any way'.

Tusk vowed that Poland will 'catch the perpetrators, whoever they are'.

A Ukrainian official blamed a specific Russian military unit for the sabotage.

'This is a sabotage unit of the Russian GRU responsible for conducting operations overseas. NATO countries are among its priority targets,' he said.

Following the incidents, the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces Wieslaw Kukula warned that Russia 'has begun the period of preparing for war' and that 'they are building an environment here intended to create conditions favourable for potential aggression on Polish territory.' 

A Russian military attack on Poland would trigger a response under NATO's Article 5 - likely amounting to a Third World War. 

General Kukula added that Russia was currently engaged in 'a pre‑war situation - or what we refer to as hybrid warfare. 

He was quoted as saying: 'Putin is creating a certain atmosphere here aimed at undermining public trust in the government, in key structures such as the armed forces and the police, as well as creating conditions favourable to potential aggression on Polish territory.'

Estonia's foreign minister Margus Tsahkna warned in Washington that the clock was ticking for Russia's military machine to directly threaten NATO states.

Vladimir Putin will 'return to our Baltic borders with even more troops and military equipment than they had before the full-scale invasion' within 'two to three years, or less', he warned.

The Kremlin dictator's aims were to 'to conquer Ukraine, to dominate its near abroad, to divide the West, and to push the US out of Europe'.