Russia sent a team of saboteurs on a mission to interfere with Western military aid to Ukraine, according to Polish authorities who say they foiled the plot.
“The suspects conducted intelligence activities against Poland and prepared acts of sabotage at the request of Russian intelligence,” Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski told reporters Thursday.
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Kaminski pointed toward a shadowy struggle over Ukraine’s supply lines, which Russian and Western European officials are prosecuting while trying to avoid a clash between Moscow and NATO. Poland hosts one of the major military installations known to have been established to coordinate the provision of aid.
“Evidence shows that the group monitored railway routes,” the minister said, per CNN, while describing the allegations against the team of nine. “Its tasks included recognizing, monitoring and documenting transports with weapons delivered to Ukraine. … The suspects were also supposed to be preparing for sabotage activities aimed at paralyzing the supply of equipment, weapons, and aid to Ukraine.”
NATO member officials have been wary of the potential for Russian sabotage operations from the earliest weeks of the war. In 2021, Czech officials blamed Russia for the explosion of Ukraine-bound ammunition that occurred in 2014, a dispute that led the Czech government to expel 20 officials from the Russian Embassy on the grounds that they were undercover spies. And last year, Poland expelled 45 alleged Russian spies from Moscow’s embassy in Warsaw.
“Russia is our neighbor, it will not disappear from the map of Europe, but the aggression towards Ukraine proves that it is an unfriendly state, and even hostile to Poland,” Kaminski said at the time.
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The latest accusation came one day after CIA Director Bill Burns arrived in Warsaw to meet Polish President Andrzej Duda. It also coincided with a visit from Czech President Petr Pavel.
“The Czech Republic and Poland are countries that are in the absolute vanguard when it comes to support for Ukraine,” Duda said.
