The Polish authorities accused two Ukrainians on Tuesday of working with Russia to sabotage train tracks, implicating Moscow in an attack that slightly damaged a crucial supply line from NATO countries to Ukraine on Saturday.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the attacks “perhaps the most dangerous situation for the security of the Polish state today since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine.” He raised the threat alert for certain critical rail lines to Poland’s second-highest level. Mr. Tusk told Parliament that the two Ukrainian men had been identified but that they fled into Belarus before they could be apprehended.
As one of Ukraine’s biggest supporters since it was invaded by Russia in 2022, Poland has been repeatedly targeted by hybrid warfare, which it blames on Moscow. Hybrid or “gray zone” attacks deploy a range of tactics — military, cyber, economic and even psychological — to destabilize opponents, using covert operations to evade responsibility.
Recent acts of sabotage in Poland have included at least two major arson attacks, exploding parcels on cargo planes and a swarm of unarmed drones that stirred widespread anxiety, even though they did not cause any deaths.
Russia has denied involvement in the arson and cargo plane attacks and downplayed the drone incursion as unintended.
In at least some of the cases, the Polish authorities suspect Ukrainian citizens of carrying out the attacks on Russia’s behalf, which could threaten Polish public support for Ukraine.
Mr. Tusk did not name the two men, who are suspected placing two devices on the rail line between Warsaw, the capital, and Lublin, in eastern Poland. One of the devices caused a minor explosion on Saturday. No one was injured in the incident, which destroyed part of the tracks but was so insignificant that the train conductor “did not even notice the incident as he passed through the area,” Mr. Tusk said.
One of the men, Mr. Tusk said, was convicted in May in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv for what he called “acts of diversion.” The other was a resident of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, much of which has been under Russian occupation for more than a decade.
A Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, scoffed at the accusation that Russia had engineered the attacks.
”Russophobia, of course, blooms in splendor,” Mr. Peskov told a Russian state television reporter.
“But,” he said, “the very fact that once again citizens of Ukraine are in question in acts of sabotage and terrorism against critical infrastructure facilities is noteworthy.”
Another Ukrainian man was arrested in August, and Germany accused him of playing a role in the September 2022 sabotage of underwater Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea that carried Russian gas to Europe.
Russian sabotage in Europe more than tripled from 2023 to 2024 as the West supported Ukraine in fighting the Russian invasion, a report found in August.
But NATO member states are divided on how to respond, especially when proof is elusive. The lack of action has caused concern in NATO countries that Russia has become increasingly emboldened.
The increasing sabotage has also fueled a debate within the alliance about whether hybrid attacks could prompt a response under Article 5 of its charter, which could involve military force. Article 5 has been invoked only once in the alliance’s history, in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Mr. Tusk on Tuesday did not say whether NATO should have a role in responding to the rail sabotage. Nonetheless, he said, “a line has been crossed.”
Valerie Hopkins contributed reporting.
Lara Jakes, a Times reporter based in Rome, reports on conflict and diplomacy, with a focus on weapons and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. She has been a journalist for more than 30 years.
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