Polish Rail Saboteur Helped Russian Intelligence Move Agents Into Ukraine

Yuriy Sizov from the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU), unit No. 92154 – also known as the 322nd Special Training Center or Senyezh – and Yevhenii Ivanov, who had previously smuggled infiltrators across the Ukrainian border, are responsible for the recent sabotage on Poland’s railway.

This follows from an analysis of the names of the suspects and their Russian handler that the Polish outlet Onet revealed and Militarnyi examined.

Yuriy Sizov and Yevhenii Ivanov attempted to execute a sabotage attack on a drone manufacturing facility in Lviv, and later, Sizov tried to organize three terrorist attacks in Ukrainian shopping malls.

Yuriy Sizov was the officer who supervised Oleksandr Kononov and Yevhenii Ivanov – Ukrainian citizens who acted on Russia’s orders and entered Poland from Belarus, where they had fled after carrying out a sabotage operation.

According to Onet, Yevhenii Ivanov and Oleksandr Kononov entered the country from Belarus using forged passports.

They stayed in Poland for only a few hours, and their assistants, who had already been detained there, handled the remaining tasks. Ivanov and Kononov left Polish territory through the Terespol border crossing before the Russian saboteurs were identified by law enforcement.

On Wednesday, the Polish prosecutor’s office charged both of them with carrying out sabotage-related terrorist acts on behalf of the Russian Federation. They face up to life imprisonment.

The individuals’ sabotage activities in Ukraine

It is known that Yevhenii Ivanov lived in the town of Pisochyn in the Kharkiv region until 2015, after which he moved to Belgorod, Russia, where he engaged in the illegal smuggling of people across the Ukrainian border.

At the end of December 2023, Ivanov, acting on orders from his Russian handler, introduced his acquaintance Borysenko, who had recently left a defense enterprise, to Sizov. Sizov offered to smuggle “gifts” into the enterprise for a $40,000 reward.

A few days later, a stranger handed Borysenko a package on the street – a large bag containing four packages labeled “Our Juice.” Instead of juice, the packages contained explosives. On February 1, 2024, using a magnetic key he still had from his former job, Borysenko entered the enterprise and left a backpack in the locker room with two packages of “juice.” A timer was set on the explosives to detonate at 4 a.m. on February 3. After placing the explosives, he even went into the workshop, where he met former colleagues, drank tea, ate cake, and talked about everyday matters before leaving.

The following evening, Borysenko learned by phone from a former colleague that the backpack with explosives had been discovered at the enterprise. He then realized that attempting to deliver the “gifts” a second time would not be possible. On February 3, Borysenko was detained and agreed to cooperate with law enforcement to expose the accomplices.

The fact of the perpetrator’s detention was concealed from the handlers, and on February 18, a staged placement of explosives and a simulated explosion and fire at the factory were conducted. For this, authorities used 70 car tires, 50 liters of gasoline, two bags of sawdust, six bales of hay, 100 liters of transformer oil, eight smoke grenades, and seven flashbang grenades.

Under the SSU’s supervision, Borysenko agreed that Sizov and Ivanov would evacuate them to Russia. At the Kharkiv railway station, a man and a woman met them by car and drove them toward the border. The final destination of the trip was the village of Sotnytskyi Kozachok in the Zolochiv district of the Kharkiv region, located at the border between Ukraine and Russia. There, another person was supposed to transfer them across the border.

However, while leaving Kharkiv, the car was involved in an accident, and the front wheels were damaged. As a result, Borysenko and his companion immediately abandoned the vehicle and walked toward the central streets of Kharkiv.

Subsequently, Sizov organized the preparation of terrorist attacks for May 9, 2024, in three Leroy Merlin home‑improvement hypermarkets in Kyiv, owned by the French company. To execute this plan, the Russians involved the same Borysenko, who was already acting under the control of Ukrainian law enforcement.

For the combined offenses, Sizov was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Ivanov received a 15-year prison sentence with the confiscation of all property.