The investigation remains at an early stage, but prosecutors say they have already identified the direct perpetrators with a high degree of certainty.
A spokesman for the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, Przemysław Nowak, said on Wednesday that investigators had gathered evidence that points to “a very high probability” that the two men were directly responsible for recent acts of sabotage on railway tracks in east-central Poland.
The suspects, identified as 39-year-old Oleksandr K. and 41-year-old Yevhenii I., are accused of carrying out “acts of sabotage of a terrorist nature” for Russian intelligence services against Poland.
According to prosecutors, the charges cover sabotage in support of a foreign intelligence service, creating a risk of a rail disaster and using explosives, offences that carry a possible life sentence.
Nowak said prosecutors had based the charges on results of on-site inspections, examination of objects found at the scenes, witness statements and CCTV footage.
He added that the men are accused of acting together and in agreement with each other and with unidentified accomplices.
The first incident took place near the village of Mika, southeast of Warsaw, on the railway line that links the Polish capital with Dorohusk, a border crossing with Ukraine.
Prosecutors say an explosive device damaged the track as a freight train was passing late on Saturday evening.
Investigators secured, among other items, a length of wire that most likely triggered the blast.
The second incident occurred near the village of Gołąb, close to the town of Puławy, on the same Warsaw–Dorohusk line.
In that case part of the overhead power system was damaged and a steel clamp was placed on the tracks. These could have caused a train to derail.
On Sunday, a passenger train carrying 475 people had to brake sharply in the area because of damage to the line.
Although the charges have been formally drawn up, the two suspects are not in custody as they fled to Belarus during the night from Saturday to Sunday, before they could be detained, Nowak said.
He added that other people were being held, but none of them has yet been charged.
The spokesman said prosecutors are now working to identify those who commissioned the sabotage and anyone who helped “in any way or in any form.”
There is not yet a court request for pre-trial detention for the two main suspects, which is required before an arrest warrant can be issued, but the prosecution service plans to file such a motion and wants it examined as quickly as possible.
Polish leaders have linked the case to Russia’s broader campaign of hybrid operations against countries supporting Ukraine.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday that, according to the authorities, one of the suspects was a Ukrainian citizen who was convicted in May by a court in Lviv, western Ukraine, for acts of sabotage, while the other comes from Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and worked in a local prosecutor’s office.
Both men are believed to have entered Poland from Belarus in the autumn.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said Warsaw would demand an explanation from Kyiv as to why, despite the conviction in Lviv, the man’s details were not flagged in international systems used to monitor cross-border movements, for example through an Interpol notice.
He added that the man “did not appear in any Border Guard system.”
Kierwiński also rejected suggestions that the suspect should have been recognised automatically from camera images.
Speculation by "some senior state officials" that his face was known and should have been identified that way "is not supported by any facts," he said.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP