The mission, which formally began at midnight on Friday after a Thursday evening order by President Karol Nawrocki, is designed to boost security on rail lines and road infrastructure and to deter potential terrorists.
Soldiers equipped with reconnaissance drones will monitor rail and road networks in support of civilian services.
Operation “Horizon” was announced this week by the defense and interior ministers and the chief of the General Staff after two Ukrainians cooperating with Russian services blew up a section of track on the Warsaw–Dorohusk line near the village of Mika in central Poland.
In another incident on Sunday near the Gołąb station in eastern Poland, a train carrying 475 passengers had to brake suddenly because about 60 meters of overhead power line had been damaged.
The operation will be run by the Operational Command of the Armed Forces, which will have up to 10,000 troops at its disposal from various branches, including the Territorial Defense Forces, Special Forces, Cyber Defense, engineers and drone units. Depending on the situation, the command will decide where and what forces to deploy.
Colonel Marek Pietrzak, spokesman for the General Staff, told state news agency PAP that the launch of the operation does not mean thousands of armed soldiers will suddenly appear at stations and along tracks.
The mission has been designed for maximum effectiveness with minimal manpower, focusing on “point operations” such as monitoring sites deemed particularly sensitive by the internal security agency ABW or other services, and responding to reports of possible threats.
Army participation is crucial because of its unique reconnaissance capabilities, Pietrzak said, including access to advanced drones not available to other services.
General Krzysztof Król of the General Staff noted that Poland has a very extensive rail network that the army cannot secure in its entirety.
“We have to define those areas that are most critical, on the one hand for ensuring the continuity of our state’s functioning in economic terms, and on the other in terms of the security of support transports for Ukraine,” he said.
Król said troops would focus on making their presence visible at key locations, such as major transport hubs that will be a monitoring priority.
“We simply have to be visible,” he said, adding that this visibility is a core element of the operation, whose main goal is prevention and deterrence of “potential terrorists financed and motivated by our adversaries from the East” to stop attacks on infrastructure.
Soldiers guarding rail facilities have already been present across Poland in recent days, but until now this was crisis-response rather than a regular operation.
Deputy prime minister and defense minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said on platform X that more than 400 Territorial Defense troops are patrolling 80 key rail segments together with the Railway Security Guard, monitoring tracks, embankments, culverts and junctions, and using drones and helicopters.
Joint patrols with the Railway Security Guard will continue as long as necessary and forces will be reinforced if needed, Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
Officers from services subordinate to the interior ministry, primarily the police, will also take part. Interior ministry spokeswoman Karolina Gałecka said the number of police officers would be “adequate and adjusted to needs and the current situation” and that securing the network is now one of the force’s priority tasks.
(jh)
Source: PAP