From March to July 2023, Polish security forces detained 15 people suspected of spying for Russia. The network included Russian citizens, Belarusians, and Ukrainians. The operation was conducted by the Polish Internal Security Agency together with the Lublin Prosecutor's Office. According to the authorities, it was one of the largest in the country's history. Members of the Russian spy network planned to blow up trains carrying weapons and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
Source. This was reported by Gazeta Polska, citing sources in the special services.
According to the investigation, the network was headed by a GRU officer based in Moscow. He gave the "agents" tasks for which they were rewarded in cryptocurrency and then exchanged it for cash.
Initially, the tasks were related to propaganda: The "spies" were instructed to write slogans on the walls criticizing the Polish government or inciting anti-Ukrainian and anti-NATO sentiment. For each action, they received several tens of dollars.
Then the tasks became more complicated. The GRU wanted to find out the dates and routes of trains with weapons and humanitarian aid destined for Ukraine. For this purpose, the intelligence service allocated money for the "agents" to buy cameras and GPS navigators. Some of the equipment was installed in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship and at the Rzeszów-Jasienka airport in the same region. Members of the network received several hundred dollars for photos.
The GRU promised even bigger rewards for attacks on the same trains carrying weapons and humanitarian aid, with not only sabotage to disrupt control systems but also direct bombings planned, the newspaper writes.
Moscow hoped that this would create an atmosphere of chaos and danger and help fuel anti-Ukrainian sentiment, the sources said.
The case file contains 66 volumes. They say that the spy network was created earlier this year. The first detentions took place in March. Nine people are under investigation, including three Belarusian students studying in Poland.
Currently, 15 members of the network are in custody. Among them is 20-year-old Russian hockey player Maxim Sergeev, who has been playing for Zagłębie since October 2021. Investigators believe that the hockey player provided the GRU with photos of critical infrastructure in several voivodeships.
In early July, security forces detained the last member of the Russian spy network. He is a Ukrainian citizen who has been living in Poland since 2019. He and the other suspects do not admit guilt. However, in their testimony, they confirmed that they had performed various actions and received remuneration for them. They face up to 10 years in prison.