The Polish police have detained a man suspected of setting fire to a large supermarket. The fire occurred earlier this year and caused significant damage. According to Polish authorities, the suspect admitted that he acted on orders from the Russian secret service. The man allegedly received a sum of money in exchange for carrying out this act.
In Germany, arson was committed in a technical building that is part of the railway network's cable system. As a result, train traffic on the busiest route in the west of the country (between Duisburg and Düsseldorf) came to a complete standstill. The disruption also caused major delays and cancellations of train connections across the entire country.
German police consider the arson a targeted sabotage action. The location and nature of the incident indicate that it was deliberately aimed at disrupting a vital transport connection. In previous cases, a coordinated approach was also established in such incidents, strengthening the suspicion of intent.
The sabotage on the German railway network shows strong similarities to earlier arsons in France. A year ago, cable cabinets on three of the busiest railway lines in that country were simultaneously set on fire. Then too, train traffic abruptly came to a halt and there was significant social and economic disruption.
Earlier this year, a similar incident was reported in the Netherlands. On the route between Schiphol and Amsterdam, arson was committed in a cable duct next to the railway line, which also led to a failure of train traffic. In all cases, arson was carried out at strategic locations in the network, indicating prior knowledge of vulnerable points in the infrastructure.
Although the suspects and circumstances differ by country, the sabotage pattern points to a possible coordinated strategy. The locations and methods are consistently similar: technical installations along busy routes are set on fire, making communication and control of train traffic impossible.
The arrested suspect in Poland is linked to a broader Russian sabotage campaign. According to one source, this arson is part of a larger pattern of covert operations intended to cause instability within the EU. The involved services are anticipating further sabotage attempts at other strategic locations.
Polish and German authorities are now collaborating with other European countries to investigate the connections between the incidents. Extra security is being deployed at vulnerable points within the infrastructure, while secret services are trying to gain insight into the scale and coordination of possible networks behind these actions.