Warsaw, Nov 19 (IANS) Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Wednesday announced withdrawal of the consent for the functioning of Russia’s last operating Consulate in Poland’s Gdansk in response to recent railway sabotage, the local media reported.
Polish government’s decision comes after two sections of the Warsaw to Lublin Line, regarded as a strategic connection between Warsaw and the eastern regions sharing border with Ukraine, were attacked by covert operations during the weekend, Poland-based TVP World reported.
Officials said tracks were blown up near Mika village, some 90 kilometres south of Warsaw, with local people stating that they heard a blast on Saturday night. Furthermore, rails in south of the Lublin region faced tampering and a power line was also reportedly cut.
Prosecutors have initiated proceedings for “acts of sabotage of a terrorist nature, directed against railway infrastructure and committed on behalf of a foreign intelligence service.”
In his address at the parliament on Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that investigators are following up on two Ukrainians who worked with Russian intelligence and fled to Belarus.
On Monday, Tusk said that tracks on the route between Warsaw and Lublin were destroyed by “the detonation of an explosive device.” The broken track near Mika village was found during an inspection conducted on Sunday morning.
He said more damage was found down the line near Lublin. He termed blowing up the rail track on the Warsaw-Lublin route an “unprecedented act of sabotage” directly targeting the security and people of Poland.
In a post on X, he stated, “Blowing up the rail track on the Warsaw-Lublin route is an unprecedented act of sabotage targeting directly the security of the Polish state and its civilians. This route is also crucially important for delivering aid to Ukraine. We will catch the perpetrators, whoever they are.”
Poland’s Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said “unfortunately there is no doubt” that the incident in Mika was linked to sabotage. He said that investigators are looking into the damage at the second site, without directly connecting it to the apparent sabotage further north.
–IANS
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