The National Prosecutor’s Office and the Internal Security Agency uncovered the largest-ever Russian intelligence network operating in Poland, planning to blow up trains carrying weapons and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, the Polish weekly Gazeta Polska reported.
From March to July, a total of 15 Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Russian citizens were detained and heard charges of espionage on behalf of the Russian military intelligence service GRU. They face up to 10 years in prison.
According to the findings of the Polish weekly, they received their orders directly from Moscow. After they would complete a task, they would get rewarded in cryptocurrencies (mainly bitcoin), which they exchanged for cash.
Acts of Diversion Members of the spy network, commissioned by the Russians, were not only supposed to gather information, photograph military and civilian objects, or stoke anti-Ukrainian and anti-NATO sentiments but also prepare acts of diversion and sabotage, Gazeta Polska wrote.
The 66-volume case file contains materials indicating, among other things, that they planned to blow up trains carrying shipments of weapons and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
“That’s why the first detentions took place at such a time rather than another. The risk of assassinations was too great to keep the group under further observation,” a person familiar with the background of the case told the weekly.
The spy network was established less than a year after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.