"Before dawn 20 masked men showed up". Logging-blocking activists approached by a mysterious group

"We wanted to draw attention to the catastrophic effects of logging of precious forests in the current climate situation. If we wrote a letter to the ministry or stood with banners in Warsaw, no one would even care. That's why we chose this form of protest," one of the activists from the informal Dziki Ruch Oporu group told us, asking to remain anonymous.

He added he had arrived in the Borecka Forest along with four other people at night between Sunday and Monday (August 21-22).

"Logging usualy starts early in the morning, so we had to be ready. We set up the tents. One of us chained themselves to a tree, while another one - to the heavy machinery," the activist said.

Spokesperson of Regional Directorate of State Forests in Białystok, Jarosław Krawczyk, said the area in question was not under any form of environment protection, and the logging was a part of maintenance works.

"They (the works) are being carried out on our orders by a forestry company, that is a private firm. They had started before, but were supposed to be continued on Monday. In this situation, forest guards arrived - accompanied by the police - and explained that due to the works carried out in the forest, that area was marked with an entry ban. So remaining here and setting up tents is illegal. The activists were IDed by the police and that was the end of the intervention," Krawczyk said.

According to the activist, the protest was interrupted shortly before dawn, when a group of approximately 20 masked men showed up in the forest.

"They probably wanted to scare us. A few of them were pulling the ropes and wanted one of us to come down from a tree they attached themselves to. When we started to scream that our colleague might fall down and die, they let go and ran away to the cars they had arrived in. They (the cars) had no licence plates," the activist explained.

The incident was filmed and the footage posted on Dziki Ruch Oporu profile on Facebook.

"Part of the masked persons drove off on a harvester and a forwarder, which had been used in the logging. Apparently they had keys to those machines. One of our colleagues, who had been chained to the machines earlier on, by that time unchained himself and went on for patrol somewhere else, and so they (the masked men) could easily take the (heavy) equipment with them," the activists told us.

The moment in which the masked men are said to have driven away in the heavy equipment was not recorded.

"So there's no evidence of that actually happening. A forester who arrived at the site the following morning confirmed the equipment was gone. According to the information we've received from the forestry company, the works in that area have been paused, and the equipment is being used in another forest. Soon, however, logging in that area will be continued," said Regional Directorate of State Forests in Białystok spokesperson.

Shortly after the incident the activists started packing up their things.

"We left the area on Monday around 10 p.m. We're thinking if we should notify the police. But it looks like we are not going to do this after all. We don't want to put ourselves in danger coming from these masked men," the activist said.

Iwona Chruścińska of Giżycko Police says that the police can only look into a case once it has been officially reported to them.

"So far no one has reported anything," she added.