Two transformers, each weighing over thirty tonnes, lie tipped over on the ground. The oil spilled out. The copper windings gone. The damage, on a first estimate, is around five million euros. This is not a picture from a war zone - this is the Dračevo railway traction substation, between the Lisiče and Dračevo stations in Skopje.

Macedonian Railways Infrastructure says copper wires, copper busbars and rods were stolen from the site, along with practically every device and component the substation needs to function. The facility is now completely inoperable. According to the findings, the theft ran over a period of roughly six months. The report came in on 25 July at 14:25.

Six months in which nobody saw anything

Here is the part that deserves attention. To tip over a thirty-tonne transformer you need machinery. Not a can opener, not bare hands - a heavy crane or an excavator. That means vehicles coming and going, engines running, metal being cut. Over half a year. In Dračevo, which is not a deserted mountain but a neighbourhood of Skopje.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications called this „a serious attack on critical railway infrastructure and on the property of the state and its citizens”, rather than ordinary copper theft. The wording is accurate. The problem is that the wording arrives after five million euros of damage, not before it.

Who was guarding the substation?

A traction substation is part of the infrastructure that railway safety depends on. Facilities like that come with a security regime, supervision, periodic inspections. If a site in that category can be dismantled down to the last bolt over six months, then the question is not only who was stealing from it, but who was paid to guard it and what exactly they were doing during those six months.

So far there is no information about anyone being detained. There are traces, police say, and reportedly mistakes the perpetrators made during the theft. Five million euros is roughly the cost of an entire small infrastructure project in this country - and here it was lost from a facility that belonged to the state and was supposed to be under lock and key.