Poland warns Russia is moving from low-cost recruits to professional sabotage cells
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Russia is shifting from individual hiring to ‘professional’ networks to carry out tasks a campaign of sabotage and other attacks This is the case across Europe, Poland’s internal security service said in a report published Wednesday.
European officials and law enforcement have previously warned that Russia is waging a hybrid war against Europe that includes sabotage, arson attacks and vandalism, as well as influence operations. The Associated Press has tracked more than 150 such incidents linked to Moscow by Western officials since the invasion of Ukraine.
Most of the people involved recruited online as disposable agents and some had no idea they were working for Moscow. Russia is now moving away from using these low-cost, one-off hires and turning to more “professional” operations and taking advantage of organized crime networks, according to the report released Wednesday by the Agency for Internal Security (ABW).
ABW stated that Poland has conducted as many espionage investigations in the last two years as in the previous three decades, and noted that 62 people were arrested.
These espionage efforts are part of Russia’s “undeclared war with the Western world,” ABW said, adding that “Russian intelligence is increasingly using special forces methods (reconnaissance and sabotage).”
ABW reported that 69 espionage investigations were launched in 2024 and 2025; This number is the same as the total number between 1991 and 2023.
“The long-term goal of the Russian Federation remains the disintegration of Euro-Atlantic structures, the isolation and internal socio-political and economic destabilization of certain countries,” the report said. Although Poland was primarily Russia’s target, some of its espionage activities were dictated by China as well as Belarus’ secret services, which were “in close cooperation” with Moscow.
“Mass surveillance” operations in Poland aim to pave the way for diversionary actions, which ABW sees as the “most serious challenge” it faces. According to the Polish agency’s observation, Russian intelligence services, which have increased their actions in Poland, accept “the possibility of deaths occurring.”
ABW also noted the increasing “professionalization” of Russian sabotage activities in 2024-2025. According to the agency, in 2023 Russian services were still basing their operations mainly on so-called one-time agents temporarily recruited via the Internet. This is a model Russia is thought to follow and expand deportation of intelligence officers by Western European countries after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
However, the ABW noted that in 2024-2025, Russia is paying more attention to the creation of “complex sabotage cells” based on “closed structures of organized crime.”
“Russians prefer people with experience in law enforcement (e.g., former soldiers, police officers, mercenaries from the Wagner Group),” the report said.
ABW added that Russian services have also intensified training conducted on Russian territory, aimed at “professionally preparing agents for terrorist activities.”
Poland in November 2025 faced What Prime Minister Donald Tusk called “an unprecedented act of sabotage” occurred when explosions and other malfunctions occurred on a section of the railway line used for deliveries. Ukrainian It affected two trains, one of which was a passenger train. There was no loss of life.
