Poland blames sabotage for railway blast on Ukraine delivery line

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Poland blames sabotage for railway blast on Ukraine delivery line

2025-11-18 05:39 Last Updated At：05:40

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Monday that an explosion on a section of railway line used for deliveries to Ukraine was an “unprecedented act of sabotage.”

A Polish security official told The Associated Press that authorities are investigating whether the blast on Sunday on the line linking Warsaw to southeastern Poland is connected to Russia, Belarus or their proxies.

Tusk has vowed that Poland will catch the perpetrators, “whoever they are.”

While visiting the site Monday, the prime minister said the incident had taken place on a line that is vital for delivering aid to Ukraine. Polish officials said they were sure an explosive device had been detonated on a section of track between Warsaw and Lublin and later discovered damage to overhead cables on the same line. Both were likely sabotage, Polish officials said.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the alliance is in close contact with Polish officials and is awaiting the outcome of the investigation.

Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of attacks and other incidents across Europe since the invasion of Ukraine three years ago, according to data collected by the AP. Moscow's goal, Western officials say, is to undermine support for Ukraine, spark fear and divide European societies.

The likelihood that the two incidents on the railway line happened “on the order of foreign services” was “very high” said Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland's security services minister.

Investigators probing the two cases of suspected sabotage are investigating whether they were deliberate acts by a hostile state, said the Polish security official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

“The perpetrators demonstrated high professionalism and expert training,” they said.

A train driver on the line between the capital, Warsaw and Lublin in southeastern Poland reported problems with the track around 7:40 a.m. on Sunday. Further inspection determined there was damage to a section of track near the village of Mika, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of Warsaw, officials said.

“We can say beyond any doubt that an explosive device was detonated, damaging the railway tracks,” Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the explosion and damage occurred late Saturday or early Sunday. Two passengers and several staff members were on the train, but no injuries were reported, officials said.

Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said Monday that the army plans to examine 120 kilometers (about 75 miles) of the Warsaw-Lublin-Hrubieszów line, which links the capital to Ukraine by rail and road.

Another train on the Świnoujście-Rzeszów route that travels along the same line was forced to stop Sunday night at Puławy, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Lublin after the overhead electrical cables were damaged, Kierwiński said Monday. Around 60 meters (200 feet) of power lines were damaged, he said. Puławy is situated between Mika and Lublin on the same train line linking Warsaw to the Ukrainian border.

At the time the train stopped, there were 475 passengers on board but no injuries were reported despite the damaged power lines breaking several of the train's windows.

Speaking with Rutte at a press conference in Brussels following the announcement from Poland, Finland's President Alexander Stubb said European nations need to keep “cool heads."

He warned about overreacting to incidents of alleged Russian disruption, warning that, "this is unfortunately the new normal. What Russia is trying to do is to destabilize our societies through information and other campaigns.”

In an interview Saturday at a Finnish military base, Stubb said Moscow is conducting “two types of warfare" — a kinetic war in Ukraine and a hybrid war in Europe.

“The line between war and peace has been blurred,” Stubb said.

Associated Press writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed.

Cashman says Gray expressed desire to play for Yankees at behest of agent to protect value

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Yankees general manager Brian Cashman says Sonny Gray admitted he expressed a desire to play in New York at the behest of his agent so as not to harm his free-agency value and didn't voice his dislike of the Big Apple until after the 2018 trade deadline had passed.

Gray was acquired by Boston in a trade from St. Louis last month and spoke of his 1 1/2 seasons in New York during a Zoom news conference on Dec. 2.

“New York was, it just wasn’t a good situation for me, wasn’t a great setup for me and my family,” he said. “I never wanted to go there in the first place.”

His agent denied Cashman's allegations in an email to The Associated Press.

Gray was traded from Oakland to the Yankees in July 2017 and went 15-16 with a 4.52 ERA with New York. He was dropped from the rotation in August 2018 after he smirked when fans booed as he walked off the Yankee Stadium mound in the third inning of a 7-5 loss to Baltimore. He was dealt to Cincinnati in January 2019.

“After the deadline was over, he asked to meet with me. He said, 'Hey, can we talk?'” Cashman said Sunday night after arriving at the winter meetings.

Cashman recalled meeting with Gray in the clubhouse office of Chad Bohling, the Yankees' senior director of organizational performance.

“He said, 'I thought you were going to trade me,'” Cashman said. “I was like, publicly I’m out trying to get pitching, starting pitching and bullpen. Why would I trade a starter when we need pitching badly? ... And he goes, ‘Well I got to tell you, I’ve never wanted to —' that’s when he told me he never wanted to be here. He hates New York. This is the worst place. He just sits in his hotel room."

“I said, Well it’s a little late now,” Cashman recalled. “So then I told him, I said, but you said you wanted to be traded here. And he said, 'My agent, Bo McKinnis, told me to do that. He told me to lie. It wouldn’t be good for my free agency to say there are certain places that I don't want to go to.'”

“And I told him: Nothing I can do about it now. I wish you’d told me well beforehand. I wish we knew this before we even tried to acquire you that you never wanted to come here," Cashman said. "We tried to do our homework. … And I said so now we’ll just have to play the year out and this winter I’ll do whatever I can to move you and we moved him to the Reds.”

Cashman said the Yankees had a minor league video coordinator who had been roommates of Gray at Vanderbilt and that Gray had mentioned to his former roommate: "Tell Cash, get me over to the Yankees. Blah, blah, blah. Like I want out of Oakland. I want to win a world championship. Blah, blah, blah. So, and it wasn’t just him. He was communicating that to a number of different people that was getting to us, that he wants to be a Yankee."

McKinnis refuted Cashman's comments.

“So Brian is trying to make people believe I told Sonny to, in Cashman’s words, `lie' to the minor league video guy to try to get Sonny to the Yankees, even though, per Cashman, Sonny did not want to be with the Yankees, to subsequently somehow help Sonny’s free agency,” McKinnis wrote in an email to the AP.

“This makes zero sense,” McKinnis added. “If any player does not want to play for a certain club — thus potentially not performing at their best if they were with that team — it does not help their career and future free agency to lie their way into a trade to that club. Brian’s claim makes no sense. Further, the words, `I want out of Oakland,' have never been said by Sonny. He loved his time with the A’s.”

Now 36, Gray has become a three-time All-Star and is 125-102 with a 3.58 ERA over 13 seasons with the Athletics (2013-17), Yankees (2017-18), Reds (2019-21), Minnesota (2022-23) and Cardinals (2024-25). The right-hander waived a no-trade provision to accept the deal to the Red Sox.

“What did factor into my decision to come to Boston is it feels good to me to go to a place now where you know what, it’s easy to hate the Yankees, right? It’s easy to go out and have that rivalry and go in it with full force, full steam ahead," Gray said. "I like the challenge. I appreciate the challenge. I accept the challenge. But this time around it's just go out and be yourself. Don't try to be anything other than yourself and if people don't like it, it is what it is. I am who I am, and I'm OK with that."

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