With the war in Ukraine, espionage is booming. While Warsaw dismissed the commander of the Eurocorps on Wednesday, this Thursday the Polish counter-espionage services ABW reported an ongoing operation targeting a Russian spy network, carried out in coordination with services from other countries .
“ABW is acting as part of an investigation into espionage activities carried out on behalf of Russia against states and institutions of the European Union,” Polish special services spokesperson Jacek Dobrzynski wrote on X .
A similar operation in Prague
During the operation, ABW carried out searches in Warsaw and Tychy (South) on Wednesday and “interrogated people”. The operation is the result of cooperation between the ABW and several European services, notably Czech, Prague having announced a similar operation on Wednesday.
The objective of the network targeted by the operation was "to achieve the foreign policy objectives of the Kremlin, in particular to weaken Poland's position on the international scene, to discredit Ukraine and the image of the institutions of the European Union,” writes ABW in a press release. These objectives were to be achieved via a pro-Russian website “voice-of-europe.eu”.
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The ABW operation is also the result of an indictment in January of a Pole suspected of spying for the Russian secret services. “The man, infiltrated among Polish and European parliamentarians, carried out tasks ordered and financed by collaborators of the Russian intelligence services”, in particular propaganda, disinformation and political provocation activities, intended to “build zones of influence Russians in Europe,” according to AWB. The identity of the man has not been specified.