The minister in charge of Poland’s security services, Tomasz Siemoniak, has urged Ukrainians living in the country not to be lured by Russian offers of cash to carry out acts of espionage or sabotage, warning that such operations only serve Moscow’s interests and could lead to long prison sentences.
On Monday, authorities in Warsaw announced the arrest of two Ukrainian nationals accused of spying on Polish military infrastructure and supply routes used to deliver aid to Ukraine. Officials said the pair had been working for a foreign intelligence service.
Poland has been on heightened alert for espionage and hybrid attacks – both physical and digital – linked to Russia and its ally Belarus.
Russia has been accused of waging a hybrid warfare campaign against NATO countries that has included sabotage, electronic warfare interference, GPS jamming and arson, with the aim of destabilizing Western society.
“I appeal to Ukrainian citizens who are in Poland not to be fooled by a few thousand euros into engaging in such activities,” Siemoniak said in an interview on Polsat News. “Our security services are effective. Why spend years in prison? Why serve Russia, which invaded Ukraine?”
“We have seen an increase in this type of activity over the past few weeks. They serve to prepare acts of sabotage. The sad truth is that Ukrainian citizens are most often hired for this purpose,” Siemoniak continued.
The minister claimed that Russian operatives entice potential Ukrainian agents with promises of large payouts, only to discard them once their missions are complete, effectively “killing two birds with one stone.”
“Firstly, they are preparing acts of sabotage… and secondly, they are dividing Poles and Ukrainians. They can say: here you go, it’s the Ukrainians who are preparing these acts of sabotage in Poland,” Siemoniak explained.
Polish services refer to such recruits as “disposable agents”, Siemoniak said, because Russia abandons them immediately after the operation and “doesn’t care about their fate at all.”
“This is no longer old-fashioned espionage,” Siemoniak lamented. “This entails use of the internet, which raises the bar for our services.”
On Oct. 21, a Polish special services spokesman said that 55 people suspected of acting on behalf of Moscow have been detained in Poland since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It came after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said earlier on Tuesday that eight people had been detained across the country in a matter of days on suspicion of “preparing acts of sabotage.”
Three Ukrainian nationals were among the eight involved in a plot to create “a sort of network to transport explosives across Poland and Romania to Ukraine,” spokesman Jacek Dobrzynski said.
In May 2024, a group of nine “mercenaries” made up of citizens of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus were arrested in Poland on suspicion of carrying out sabotage attacks including beatings and arson.