Two power transformers, each weighing over 30 tonnes, forcibly tipped over. Transformer oil spilled on the ground. The copper windings, the wires, the rails and practically every device needed for operation - stolen. This happened at the Drachevo traction power substation, between the Lisiche and Drachevo railway stations. The initial estimate of direct material damage is around five million euros.

This is not copper theft. This is the dismantling of part of the railway's power system, carried out on site, with equipment, and with enough time for nobody to notice. To tip over two 30-tonne transformers you need rather more than pliers and a bag.

MZh Infrastructure said the facility is completely out of service and that the incident is not merely theft of equipment but a serious attack on critical railway infrastructure and on the property of the state and its citizens. Damage to facilities of this kind, they say, can cause serious consequences for the safety, stability and regular operation of rail traffic.

Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski held a coordination meeting with the directors of Railways Infrastructure, Sinisha Ivanovski, and Railways Transport, Dejan Koshutikj, and then came out with an assurance that the schedule stays unchanged. "I want to inform citizens that there will be a city train, we promised it from 1 September and from 1 September it will operate. There will be regular cargo traffic on Corridor 10, which brings the Railways the most revenue, and there will be passenger trains to Veles, Gevgelija, Prilep and Bitola," he wrote. He also expressed confidence that with a swift police response the thieves will be found and held to account.

The promise that the trains will not stop is what a citizen wants to hear, and it is good that it was stated clearly. But alongside it stands a question no press release touches: how does a piece of critical infrastructure, holding equipment worth millions of euros, end up with no physical security, no working CCTV and no alarm that goes off while someone is tipping over a thirty-tonne transformer?

This is not a bank vault. It is an open-air substation, at a well-known location, right next to two railway stations. If you can drive heavy machinery up to it and dismantle it while the system stays silent, then the problem does not begin with the thieves. It begins with someone deciding that guarding it costs too much.

Five million euros is the kind of figure that builds a substantial piece of infrastructure. Now it will be spent restoring something we already had. When the police find the perpetrators - and they usually do - the second question will remain, and there is no investigation into it: who signed off on the decision that this substation did not need guarding.