The Russian plan will involve an attempt to disorganize, paralyze, and possibly also destroy Ukrainian border crossings. So this also concerns our country. I will ask the generals for a brief, concise briefing on the situation regarding the overnight incidents and the current situation at the border crossings.
We must be aware — and here I address all of you — that from today we will effectively be operating in a very heightened mode, because what we know and what we can expect is that the coming weeks and months will be a period of very intensified activity on the Russian side, and unfortunately we cannot rule out that this escalation will also concern our territory. I hope not. I hope that the worst-case scenario does not materialize, but unfortunately, the events so far confirm the information we have been receiving for many months that even the worse variants are possible.
I will also want — and here I will ask for information from the services — that we be able to verify, one-to-one, all the information we receive, especially in alarm mode at night. This is not only a matter of the Government Security Center and passing information to residents, but it is also very important from the point of view of both the army and the government that every piece of information that appears in the public space — and I am not talking only about an incoming missile, because that is the army's job — but information coming from the Ukrainian side, the Russian side, or any other, because I want us to have the full ability to verify and confirm this information, so that we do not make any mistake when our urgent reaction is needed.
I spoke a moment ago with Minister Sikorski. He is just returning from Kyiv to Warsaw. I hope he arrives safely in Warsaw. We will also think together about how to mobilize our allies. We do not want to fall into any nervous mood, and emotions are the least advisable here, but there is no doubt that we must be prepared, together with our allies, for a joint reaction if such a need arises.
These attacks tonight indicate that the Russians are ready to use more dangerous equipment than before. I am talking about jet drones. Their range, their precision — they are alarming. Of course, Ukraine, which is very well prepared to defend against drones, is also not 100% effective. To put it delicately, Minister Tomczyk informed me that in total 13 locations on the Ukrainian side were hit.
So we must be aware that Russia possesses such capabilities, and that is why I will also be waiting for information on how we are prepared for the possible use of drones to disorganize things here — whether at railway operations or at workplaces — because I do not rule out that such situations could also occur. I hope not, but only our maximum preparation is the best guarantee that no dramatic things will happen.
So I would now give the floor to General Bagan. Please give a brief briefing on the situation at the border crossings with Ukraine, and afterwards General Chojnacki will give a coherent account of what happened overnight from the military point of view. Please go ahead.
Mr. Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday from 2:00 p.m. there were successive interruptions in processing at the border crossings with Ukraine on the Ukrainian side, due to the threat of attacks by unmanned aerial vehicles. And practically throughout the day and the entire night, this traffic was being resumed and suspended. And we, as the Border Guard, naturally adapted to the conditions on the Ukrainian side. So at our border crossings as well, when the Ukrainian side suspended traffic, traffic was suspended; when the Ukrainian side carried out processing, we also processed.
At around 4:10 a.m., a drone attack struck a gas station about 2 km from the border crossing in Dorohusk. The explosion was so strong that the windows at our post on our side shook.
An evacuation of the border crossing was announced immediately. We had these scenarios worked out beforehand, so the whole system functioned. 25 Border Guard officers and 25 customs and treasury administration officers were evacuated from the post in Dorohusk. The remaining part of the crossing's staff — that is, phytosanitary and veterinary services — totaling about 78 people, plus we additionally evacuated over 280 people from the crossing area outside the crossing zone, to create the least possible threat to their lives and health. Among them were five coaches full of passengers, and these coaches were also transported outside the crossing area.
As for our personnel, they took shelter in hiding places that had been previously designated, so there was no threat to the lives and health of these people. At around the same time, we received information that an unidentified object was also heading toward the border crossing in Hrebenne, and upon receiving this information, a decision was also made to evacuate the crossing, and in this case as well, over 300 people were evacuated — 66 people from our personnel and personnel of the National Revenue Administration, plus over 280 people from the crossing area, regarding the travelers. The travelers were evacuated outside the crossing area to minimize as much as possible the effects of a potential drone strike. Our personnel, however, took shelter in previously designated rooms associated with the possibility of hiding.
And here, after consultation with the command and guidance center of the armed forces, a decision was made that as few people as possible should remain in these hiding rooms, given that the threat was not confirmed by the military, so there was in fact no attack directed at the border crossing.
In Hrebenne, at around 8:27 a.m., another strike occurred on the Ukrainian side on a railway siding, and from our information obtained from the Ukrainian side, it appears that a drone — sorry, a rocket — struck the locomotive of a freight train. The train consisted of empty tank cars. So these are the information we obtained from the neighboring side. I know that other information appeared in the media. Here we are not able to 100% confirm which information is true.
Mr. Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, the current situation at the border crossings is under control, traffic is proceeding normally. We are not detecting any threats at this moment. Thank you. Would colleagues from the Lublin Border Guard Department like to add anything from the last moment? General, if you would.
The situation, as the commander presented it. Of course, yes. And indeed, after the information that a bomb exploded at the Moldovan-Ukrainian crossing, we observed very frequent occurrences of border traffic suspension coming from the Ukrainian side. The information about the situation on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border took place on the 9th and 10th — we already had three requests to suspend processing in Dorohusk, two in Zosin. On the 11th we had one request to suspend processing in Dorohusk. On the 12th we had two requests in Dorohusk and two in Hrubieszów.
Indeed, regarding the preparation of the crossings, taking into account the order of the Chief Commander and the voivodeship crisis management plans within the critical infrastructure framework, where the crossings operate, we took such basic measures to ensure the safety of both officers and travelers. The commanders of the border crossings received orders to issue helmets and vests to the control posts upon the announcement of an alarm. They are 100% available for use by the officers. We indicated hiding places. These places at the border crossings are somewhat adapted from possible locations that can be used. They are simply basements, because we do not have other infrastructure there, but it seems to us that these are reasonably safe places.
We established procedures for action in the event of border crossing operations in two aspects. First, when the Ukrainian side reports an alarm and we see neither our own nor our towers — that is, we do not see flying objects that could pose a threat — then we suspend border processing at the request of the Ukrainian side. And the second, more alarm-oriented variant: when, after the Ukrainian request to suspend traffic, we see on the Ukrainian applications — Air Alert — indeed flying objects, and ODN confirms to us objects in the area approaching the border crossing area. In that case, the commanders have orders to move the coaches outside the border crossings, so as not to create a threat to the people who are at the border crossing.
Additionally, the people who are at the crossing — in heavy traffic we have such a problem, because trucks are not able to turn around and we are not able to evacuate them quickly enough. In that case, there is information for travelers to go together with the officers and other services to the hiding places in the border crossing area.
As for the functioning of these types of solutions, they worked 100% both in Hrebenne and in Dorohusk. Earlier, of course, before this, we met with all the services at the border crossings, familiarizing them with the locations of this deployment. With the customs service, we agreed on the possibility of moving the coaches outside the crossing and completing processing either outside the crossing or again returning to the border crossing. So this element worked for us.
And a very important element that would be worth considering is the issue of the safety of the officers. Those who are at the crossing after evacuation, within the framework of the evacuation, can go down to the hiding places. Nevertheless, on the state border line, where we have posts at the border and at the posts at the entrance to the border crossing, it would be advisable for us to leave officers there. And here, with the Chief Commander, we discussed whether there would be such a possibility from the army to quickly implement so-called HESCO bastions. These are large, bunker-like structures filled with sand, where the officer would have the possibility of observing the state border line, but also taking shelter in those places, and that would be a very good solution.
As for crisis and crisis management, it is a matter of, upon obtaining information about an alarm, disseminating that information. We have radio telephones, but the customs agencies and other services that do not have direct communication are not able to receive the information quickly enough if the time were very short. And we came up with a solution — our own improvised one — to use the loudspeakers in service vehicles to announce the alarm, but that is a target solution. It would be good — we will be talking with the voivodeship — to at least, in the interim, until there is no central system, perhaps also operating at the crossing, to purchase megaphones that would allow us to announce alarms within the border crossings.
And of course, here a very good option and also cooperation with the police, because it must be said that at the end of the week we always have very large queues of trucks waiting to leave Poland. And taking into account Hrebenne and Dorohusk deliveries, there is a very large number of ADR vehicles with fuel. Therefore, it would seem that one should consider the possibility of moving these ADR vehicles, which pose a very real threat if something were to happen related to an explosion, to try to move these vehicles out of the queue, gently, to a safer place. We made such an attempt today in Dorohusk. The police, very nicely together with our patrols, moved these vehicles out from in front of the crossing, a little bit into the country, to minimize the risk if some drone were to circle around in our areas.
Mr. Minister, Mr. Prime Minister, I report briefly our needs and the current situation, and these evacuation solutions seem, on the spot, to be a very good solution.
Thank you very much. We will come back to this cooperation with the army and to your needs. General, please give the information. Chief of Staff of the Operational Command. Please go ahead.
