From today, Poles can expect to see more soldiers patrolling their cities and other key locations across the country as a result of the launch of ‘Operation Horizon’, which entails the deployment of 10,000 military personnel across the nation to beef up security at critical infrastructure sites, posted there with the intention of preventing “sabotage attacks”.
The operation was announced by Polish Minister of Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz earlier this week, following damage done to a key railway line connecting the Polish capital Warsaw to the eastern city of Lublin. A route used by the public and also to deliver aid to Ukraine, the authorities have said that an act of sabotage was responsible.
The military was called in to assist in investigations last weekend following the discovery of damage at two points along the rail line, one of which it was concluded was caused by an explosion, which Prime Minister Donald Tusk in a video posted to social media said was “most likely intended to blow up a train on the Warsaw-Dęblin line”.
The head of the Polish railway network PLK, Piotr Wyborski stated that “several incidents” were noted on the same line last Sunday, raising suspicions of an orchestrated campaign against state infrastructure.
In the days following the initial discovery, Mr Tusk announced that as a result of the investigation, they could conclude that Russian Secret Services “commissioned the blast of the Polish railway and recruited two Ukrainians to do it”.
“We also know the identities of the perpetrators who immediately fled Poland for Belarus,” the Polish PM added.
Moscow was quick to deny the charge, accusing the Polish government instead of suffering from ‘Russophobia’.
Despite the Russian denial, the Polish Foreign Ministry yesterday said that it had requested the extradition of the Ukrainian nationals from Belarus – a request that’s likely to go unanswered, given it’s not the first time people of interest to the Polish security services have fled to the country’s eastern neighbour. Last year saw the defection of Polish judge Tomasz Szmydt to Belarus, where he was granted asylum.
Warsaw is seeking him on espionage charges, thus far to no avail.
While the sabotage suspects remain at large, Poland has taken retaliatory action in other ways, such as by closing Russia’s last consulate in the country, leaving the embassy in Warsaw the only remaining diplomatic presence. Russia, of course, reciprocated, with a promise to reduce Poland’s diplomatic presence in return.
This comes following a wave of closures in the years since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Polish Foreign Minister, Radosław Sikorski, last year ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Poznań in response to what Poland claimed was a Russian ‘hybrid’ campaign against it, involving sabotage of various kinds, and including cyberattacks.
Then, earlier this year, he additionally ordered the closure of Russia’s consulate in Kraków, this time in response to a fire that destroyed Warsaw’s largest shopping centre, for which three Ukrainians Polish prosecutors say were working on Russia’s behalf were jailed.
The latest deterioration in relations, then, also came yesterday (a busy week), when Poland’s ambassador to Russia was attacked by a group of protesters in St Petersburg, during a trip to meet with members of the Polish community there for Independence Day events. The Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying that it was the “most serious incident of its kind in many years,” and that only the action taken by the Polish security officers assigned to the ambassador prevented him from being beaten.
Suffice it to say, the cumulative effect of the ongoing breakdown between Poland and its eastern neighbours is an atmosphere of heightened tension. The ‘alert level’ was raised on Tuesday to its second highest level, which views the likelihood of a potential incident as being higher than normal.
These developments come in time for the typical bustle of the Christmas season, which the head of Poland’s armed forces said might be viewed by the country’s opponents as an ideal opportunity for further sabotage attacks. In light of that, he requested vigilance from members of the public in the coming weeks, and announced that an app would be launched in late November or early December, through which people could report suspicious activity or suspected threats.
The heightened tension is not out of keeping with developments elsewhere in Europe, as EU countries experience a rise in disruptive incidents targeting their critical infrastructure. Drone-related disruptions at European airports have become a feature of recent months, one report claiming that such incidents have quadrupled in frequency between January 2024 and November 2025.
Meanwhile, the loitering of a Russian-flagged ship has caused concern closer to home recently. RTÉ reports that the vessel, the Yantar, is being monitored by the Defence Forces, aware that from its current position north of Scotland it could either travel south through the Irish sea or towards Irish EEZ waters off the west coast.
The Yantar, which Russia describes as an oceanographic research vessel, while Europe holds that it is “spy ship” designed for intelligence operations and subsea cable mapping, was operating near such cables in the Irish Sea, north of Dublin in November last year.