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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has pledged to pursue tough punishment for acts of arson in cases where fires are deliberately started on behalf of foreign intelligence services.
Speaking amid an ongoing wildfire that has already engulfed 450 hectares of Poland’s biggest national park, Tusk warned that such acts of arson are punishable under the espionage law. The punishment could be between five years and life imprisonment.
The Biebrza National Park lies in northeastern Poland, close to the border with Belarus. Last year, Poland experienced a series of arson incidents with investigators establishing ties to Belarus and Russia.
💬 Premier @DonaldTusk 👇
Susze będą się powtarzać, a z nimi rośnie zagrożenie pożarami. Każde świadome podpalenie lub skrajna bezmyślność musi spotkać się z surową karą. Wprowadzimy nowe zasady i większą dyscyplinę. Czasem to właśnie wyższa kara uświadamia powagę sytuacji.… pic.twitter.com/nphKPdYCv1
— Kancelaria Premiera (@PremierRP) April 21, 2025
The wildfire in the Biebrza National Park started on 20 April, and is still ongoing amid efforts to tackle the blaze. According to the latest update from the interior ministry, 450 hectares out of the park’s total area of 60,000 hectares have already been consumed by flames.
Three hundred firefighters, 100 soldiers and 60 foresters are currently deployed in the park. Five helicopters from Poland’s forestry agency and one police helicopter have dropped hundreds of litres of water over the park.
The exact cause of the fire remains unknown. After arriving on site, Tusk announced that “any deliberate arson or extreme thoughtlessness must be met with severe punishment. We will introduce new rules and greater discipline”.
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“Sometimes it is a harsher punishment that makes people realise the gravity of the situation,” Tusk said, noting that the issue will be discussed today during a meeting of the council of ministers.
“In the event that a Polish citizen decided to do this [arson] on behalf of [foreign] security services, in my opinion this would have to be treated as an act of treason, article 130 [of the penal code]. This is beyond discussion,” he said, quoted by news website Onet.
Tusk also thanked the Polish services involved in the firefighting operations. “I can’t help much physically, but I want to say thank you…You are protecting a precious national asset.”
Meanwhile, the interior ministry has warned that the fire has prompted fraudsters to try to scam people through false fundraisers for the national park.
“The police are already handling the case and ensuring that we will do everything to ensure that the perpetrators of these false collections are located and detained,” said interior ministry spokesman Jacek Dobrzyński.
Pożar w Biebrzańskim Parku Narodowym.
W działaniach gaśniczych zaangażowanych jest ok. 93 pojazdów 🚒, w skład których wchodzi ok. 180 ratowników PSP oraz OSP 👨🚒, w tym dwa pojazdy SHERP 🛻 oraz 6 zespołów dronowych 🚁 pic.twitter.com/pyuEoYbKW4— Państwowa Straż Pożarna (@KGPSP) April 20, 2025
“The devastation is enormous,” said Jacek Brzozowski, the governor of the Podlasie province, quoted by news website Wirtualna Polska. “This is the third such large fire in the Biebrza National Park this year”.
Three weeks ago, around 90 hectares of reed beds and dry grasses burned in the park. Meanwhile, a separate fire last week burned an area of eight to nine hectares.
This is not the first time the national park has experienced a severe wildfire. In 2020, a major fire caused by farmers illegally burning grass scorched an area of 5,300 hectares. It was the park’s first large outbreak in 17 years and possibly the largest in its history.
The park is renowned for its peat bogs, marshes and fenlands, which provide a home to various species of plants, rare wetland birds, and mammals such as elk and beavers.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Mateusz Wasilewski / Ochotnicza Straż Pożarna / X
Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.
