WARSAW: Two Ukrainian citizens working for Russia are suspected of blowing up a railway line in Poland over the weekend, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday.
Speaking to the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament, Tusk said the two suspects had been collaborating with Russian secret services for a long time. He said their identities were known but could not be revealed to the public because of ongoing investigations. The pair have already left Poland.
Tusk has described the explosion on a rail line linking Poland’s capital, Warsaw, to the border with Ukraine as an “unprecedented act of sabotage.”
In a separate incident, which Polish officials are also now confirming as sabotage, power lines over another segment of the same rail line further south were also damaged.
A meeting of the governmental National Security Committee had taken place earlier on Tuesday, with the participation of military commanders, heads of the intelligence services and a representative of the president.
Army patrols have been sent to check the safety of railways and other key infrastructure in the east of the country, the defense minister said.
Polish prosecutors have initiated an investigation into “acts of sabotage of a terrorist nature” directed against railway infrastructure and committed for the benefit of foreign intelligence.
“These actions brought about an immediate danger of a land traffic disaster, threatening the lives and health of many people and property on a large scale,” prosecutors said in a statement.
In the first incident, an explosion damaged the tracks near the village of Mika, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Warsaw and, in a separate incident, power lines were destroyed in the area of Puławy, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Lublin. Trains carrying passengers were forced to stop at both locations, but no one was hurt.
“The explosion was most likely intended to blow up the train,” Tusk said on Monday in reference to the Mika incident.
The damage caused at both locations has been repaired.
Poland says 2 Ukrainians working for Russia are suspected of being involved in railway blast
https://arab.news/wc9fd
Poland says 2 Ukrainians working for Russia are suspected of being involved in railway blast
- Tusk said the two suspects had been collaborating with Russian secret services for a long time
- Army patrols have been sent to check the safety of railways and other key infrastructure in the east of the country
Venezuela aims to boost oil output but sanctions stand in the way, VP says
- Sanchez called the recent capture of Nicolas Maduro a “dark day” for the country
DUBAI: Venezuela’s Vice President for Economy Calixto Ortega Sanchez said on Wednesday that his country needed vast foreign investment and sanctions relief to tap its huge oil reserves and restart its ailing economy.
“We know that the reference for Venezuela is that (it is) the country with the biggest oil reserves, and we want to stop being known for this, and we want to be known as one of the countries with the highest production levels,” Sanchez said.
Responding to questions by American journalist Tucker Carlson, Sanchez called the recent capture of Nicolas Maduro a “dark day” for the country but said Venezuela was working to reestablish a relationship with the US, which he described as a “natural partner” for the country.
“The Venezuelan people and authorities have shown that they are ready to peacefully move forward and to build opportunities,” he said during a session at the World Government Summit.
Sanchez, who headed Venezuela’s central bank, said the most pertinent issue facing his country is continued US sanctions.
Despite failing to result in regime change, the sanctions had effectively stifled the economy from growing, he added.
He said the Venezuelan government was now working to reform its laws to allow foreign investment and hoped the US would ease sanctions to aid their work.
“The first decisions that interim President Rodriguez took was to go to the National Assembly and ask for reform to the hydrocarbon law … this law will allow international investors to go to Venezuela with favorable conditions, with legal assurance of their investments,” he added.
“The economy is ready for investment. The economy is ready for the private sector; it is ready to build up a better future for the Venezuelan people.”
Sanchez played down inferences by Carlson that his government had been taken over, insisting that the regime still held authority in the country. He said the country had set up two funds to receive money from oil production that would fund better welfare and social conditions for Venezuelans.
“Allow us to have access to our own assets … we don’t have access to our own money,” he added.
“If you allow us to function like a regular country, Venezuela will show extraordinary improvement and growth.”
