Two Ukrainians were detained in Katowice suspected of gathering information about the Polish military and critical infrastructure.
Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for the government coordinator of the secret services, reported about it on the X social network. Polish officials accuse Russia and Belarus of being behind the growing number of sabotage incidents Poland has been dealing with in recent years.
Tomasz Siemoniak, who is responsible for the coordination of the secret services in the government, later specified that this pair of Ukrainians is among the eight people suspected of preparing sabotages, whose detention was announced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk last Tuesday.
Dobrzyński said that the cooperation of the Polish military and civilian counterintelligence led to the capture of the pair. According to Dobrzyński, a thirty-two-year-old man and a two-year-old woman were looking for information “about the military potential of Poland and installing devices for covert monitoring of critical infrastructure.” They collected information related to Polish soldiers or transport infrastructure used for logistical and military support of Ukraine, which is resisting the Russian invasion for the fourth year and for which Poland is an important ally. The court sent the pair of Ukrainians to custody for three months, Dobrzyński also said.
The prosecutor’s office in Lublin, eastern Poland, which is overseeing the investigation, said in a statement on its website that these people worked for a foreign secret service from May 2023 to August this year and that they were detained less than two weeks ago. If convicted, they face eight years in prison.
Siemoniak said on Polish Radio that this case “proves that we are dealing with a growing intensity of diversionary activities and preparations for diversionary actions.” The Polish secret services and other security forces “have their hands full”, said a politician from Tusk’s Civic Coalition.
Poland says the incidents of arson or cyber attacks it has experienced in recent years are part of Russia’s hybrid war against it. According to Warsaw, the aim of the Russian secret services is to destabilize the states that support Ukraine. Moscow rejects such accusations, Reuters reminded. (ČTK)