Dozens of alleged Russian spies have been arrested by Polish police, with the country’s Prime Minister accusing them of committing acts of sabotage and arson.
The 32 accused of working with Russian intelligence hail from five different countries, including Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Colombia and Poland itself.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters that ‘contracted beatings’ had also taken place as part of an effort ordered by Vladimir Putin to destabilise Western nations.
He said: “At the moment, 32 people who are suspected of collaborating with Russian special services who ordered sabotage or contract beatings have been detained.
“Despite our effectiveness in the fight against the organisers of sabotage and contract beatings, the time has come to issue a real emergency signal to all special services.”
Counter efforts to prevent Russian influence across European countries have intensified in recent months, with the UK sanctioning spies and hackers in “three units of the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU) and 18 military intelligence officers who are responsible for conducting a sustained campaign of malicious cyber activity over many years, including in the UK.”
In June, it emerged that employees of Switzerland’s Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) had cooperated with Russian intelligence for years via the “illegal transfer of data” between 2015 and 2020.
Of the 32 most recently accused of carrying out spy operations for Russia, just one has been convicted, while the Colombian man detained stands charged with starting two fires in Poland.
“This is seen by everyone – the US, NATO, our European allies – as a permanent threat that will remain in the future,” Tusk told reporters, referring to Russia’s covert tactics.
Poland shares a border with Ukraine, Russia’s Kaliningrad and Belarus, a vocal supporter of Russia’s war efforts and currently housing Russian nuclear weapons.
It possesses the largest army in Europe, the third largest in NATO behind the United States and Turkey, offering a key logistical hub for Western aid to Kyiv.
Previously, in 2023, Poland claimed to dismantle a Russian spy ring which had hoped to identify key railway routes and junctions, likely linked to Ukrainian aid, for Putin’s army.
More recently, in October 2024, two Russians were arrested in Poland for promoting the Russian private military company, Wagner Group, which stands accused of war crimes across the globe.
The NATO member also pointed to Russia as the culprit for a 2024 fire which destroyed a large shopping centre in Warsaw.