Poland says Russia shifting to professional sabotage cells targeting Europe

Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) warned that Russian intelligence is moving from ad‑hoc, low‑cost online recruits to organized, “professional” sabotage networks. The shift includes ties to organized‑crime groups and aims at sabotage, arson, vandalism and potentially lethal attacks across Europe, ABW said.

The agency reported 62 arrests in the past two years, matching the total number of espionage investigations from the previous three decades. It cited 150 incidents linked to Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine and warned that Russia’s “long‑term goal … remains the disintegration of Euro‑Atlantic structures, the isolation of specific countries and their internal socio‑political and economic destabilisation.”

While Poland is the primary target, ABW noted cooperation between Russian, Belarusian and Chinese services in these operations, underscoring a broader hybrid‑war strategy against the West.