Poland has dismantled a Russian espionage network active in the country and detained nine people who had been preparing acts of sabotage against deliveries of weapons to war-torn Ukraine, the Polish interior minister said on Thursday.
"The Russians are ready to pull out all the stops to achieve their aims," Wojciech Brochwicz, a former deputy head of the Polish counterintelligence service, was quoted as saying on Monday.
"They are trying to disrupt the supply of weapons to Ukraine, and they are also attempting to destabilize the situation in Poland," he added.
Brochwicz also said that "the group was most likely masterminded by the GRU," the polskieradio24.pl website reported.
Stanisław Żaryn, a spokesman for Poland's security services, has said that the suspects "used hidden cameras to monitor the railway tracks in Poland and prepare acts of subversion" against infrastructure "in a bid to paralyze the supplies of equipment, weapons and aid to Ukraine."
Poland's Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński told reporters on Thursday that the country's Internal Security Agency (ABW) "in recent days detained nine people suspected of collaborating with the Russian secret services."
He said the suspects "conducted intelligence activities against Poland and prepared acts of sabotage at the request of Russian intelligence."
Kamiński added that the suspects were foreigners from countries to the east of Poland.
Kamiński also said that, according to the evidence gathered, the group had been monitoring rail routes to Ukraine, including collecting information about weapons deliveries to Kyiv.
Kamiński added: “The suspects were also preparing acts of subversion, designed to sabotage the supply of equipment, weapons and assistance to Ukraine.”
The interior minister also revealed that ABW officers "secured cameras, electronic equipment, as well as GPS transmitters that were to be mounted on transports with help for Ukraine."
In addition, the group had been ordered by their handlers to conduct “propaganda activities to destabilise relations between Poland and Ukraine,” and they had been paid for their work, Kamiński told reporters.
Monday is day 390 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
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Source: polskieradio24.pl