Łukasz Szpyrka, Interia: Are you surprised by any aspect of the story about sabotage, which Prime Minister Donald Tusk told in detail in the Sejm ?

Dr. Paulina Piasecka, Collegium Civitas: - None. Neither that these are deliberate actions to the detriment of the Republic of Poland and its citizens, the public sector, with particular emphasis on public transport. Nor even who the people recruited to commit these attacks were.

Is it any wonder that they were Ukrainians, probably recruited by Russia?

By carrying out these attacks in this manner, i.e., using saboteurs of specific origin, the Russian Federation aims to achieve two goals. The first is the act of sabotage itself, which involves placing all our services on alert, and the second is the launch of information operations. The latter is intended to build distrust of state institutions, but also of refugees from Ukraine. The tensions thus generated would weaken the integrity of our country and reduce our readiness to jointly face an external threat.

The aggressor did not achieve the first goal, but the second one is happening because people will blame the Ukrainians for the sabotage.

"Unfortunately, yes. This is a deliberate act. There is no nation, no social group, without a few bad apples. There will always be those in every nation whose only homeland is money. In the case of those individuals the prime minister spoke of, we are dealing with people convicted of crimes against their own nation."

Both saboteurs escaped. As Prime Minister Tusk said, they left our country through the border crossing in Terespol.

"It was quite obvious. No one in their right mind would have stayed there, waiting to see what would happen. Especially since devices were being installed there to remotely transmit or record the effects of this sabotage. Of course, it's sad that they weren't apprehended and brought to justice. It would be very optimistic to believe they would stay in Poland and wait until we catch them."

Isn't it too optimistic to believe that we will "catch" them in Belarus or Russia?

"It would be a major success. I don't think we should send commandos into the territory of an aggressive country that might consider such an action a provocation or a violation of its sovereignty. Let's wait, and we'll find them someday. Either when peace returns, or when they have to flee for some reason. I'm convinced the prime minister took his declaration seriously that anyone who brings this kind of threat to Poland will not go unpunished and will not hide at the end of the world."

"The attackers' mistake helped us, but it could have been a serious disaster with casualties," the Prime Minister said. He added that it was an unprecedented event, the most dangerous since 2022.

"I think the Prime Minister had a very specific point in mind. We have been experiencing attacks from the East using a wide range of hybrid means for many years. The first information operations were conducted in Poland well before 2022. It's a kind of creeping aggression. First, we talked about information and propaganda activities. Then, about the intensive activity of trolls and bots in the new information space. In the meantime, intense attacks have begun to take place in cyberspace. The Prime Minister emphasizes that for the first time we are dealing with a very serious, kinetic expression of aggression on our territory. Does this mean that this is the final expression of aggression? No, but it is a signal that the situation is not only not calming down, and that Russian aggression is not diminishing, but is even growing and is becoming increasingly severe in its potential consequences."

That's why the Prime Minister announced the introduction of the third alert level, CHARLIE, on certain railway lines in the country. What does this mean?

"CHARLIE means there may be a specific threat to a specific target. The next level, DELTA, means something has happened. In my opinion, even the DELTA level could have been used in this case, because the authorities say an act of sabotage has already occurred."

But how do these alert levels affect Poles? Should citizens take action, change their attitudes, or prepare for something when a given level is introduced?

"The levels primarily impose tasks on the services. The citizen's responsibilities in all these levels remain the same. They include maintaining vigilance, reporting suspicious incidents, and complying with the services' orders. But the alert levels are actually imposed on the administration. There will be 24-hour on-call staff, accessibility checks, and other such matters. For the citizen, little changes – you have to be vigilant, report anything, and obey the services' orders."

"If that hadn't happened, we wouldn't have introduced the third alert level. If that hadn't happened, the Prime Minister wouldn't have said we were facing the greatest threat in years. If that hadn't happened, the Prime Minister probably wouldn't have appeared before the Sejm, discussing the threat level for Poland and the region. This thread alone, concerning various events in the region, makes it clear that we are dealing with an intensification of hostile activities. This worries us, but we must remain more vigilant and be prepared to respond appropriately. We cannot be intimidated."