Ukrainian citizens Yevhenii Ivanov and Oleksandr Kononov are allegedly responsible for sabotage on railways in Poland and fled to Belarus, the Polish portal Onet reports, citing its sources.
Ivanov is 41 years old, and Kononov is 39. According to Onet, both were the “brains” behind the sabotage operation on Polish railways. They spent only a few hours in Poland, while the remaining tasks were carried out by their assistants, who have already been detained in Poland.
According to Ukrainian media, Ivanov was recruited by Russian intelligence no later than January 2024. He was supposed to cooperate with Russian GRU officer Yuriy Syzov, who tasked him with preparing sabotage at a drone manufacturing plant in Lviv. Ivanov is originally from Kharkiv region.
Ivanov and Kononov left Poland through the Terespol border crossing before they were identified by the authorities. Both men were mentioned by Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday in the Sejm. “These suspects are known to us: one of them is a Ukrainian citizen convicted by the Lviv court in May this year for sabotage in Ukraine and currently in Belarus. The second is a resident of Donbas. He also entered Poland from Belarus together with the first suspect in the autumn of this year, shortly before the attacks,” the prime minister said.
Today, the acting chargé d’affaires of Belarus in Poland was summoned to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A note requesting the extradition of the two Ukrainian citizens suspected of railway sabotage in Poland was handed over.