Poland warns Russia is moving from low-cost recruits to professional sabotage cells

WARSAW, Poland (AP) 鈥� Russia is shifting from individual recruits to 鈥榩rofessional鈥� networks to carry out 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, including 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.

Many of the people involved were and some had no idea they were working for Moscow. Russia is now moving away from using those low-cost, one-time recruits toward more 鈥減rofessional鈥� operations, tapping into organized crime networks, according to the report published on Wednesday by the Internal Security Agency, or ABW.

Poland has conducted as many espionage investigations in the past two years as it did over the previous three decades, ABW said, noting that 62 people have been arrested.

Those espionage efforts are part of Russia’s 鈥渦ndeclared war with the Western world,鈥� ABW said, in which 鈥淩ussian intelligence is increasingly using methods typical of special forces (reconnaissance and sabotage).鈥�

In 2024 and 2025, 69 espionage investigations were initiated, the same total number as between 1991 and 2023, ABW reported.

鈥淭he long-term goal of the Russian Federation remains the disintegration of Euro-Atlantic structures, the isolation of specific countries and their internal socio-political and economic destabilization,鈥� the report stated. While Poland was primarily targeted by Russia, some of the espionage activities were also dictated by Belarus’ secret services, which are 鈥渃losely cooperating鈥� with Moscow, as well as by China.

The 鈥渕ass surveillance鈥� operations in Poland are meant to set the ground for acts of diversion, which ABW considers 鈥渢he most serious challenge鈥� it faces. Russian intelligence services, who are escalating their actions in Poland, are accepting the possibility of 鈥渙ccurrence of fatalities,鈥� the Polish agency observed.

ABW also noted an increasing 鈥減rofessionalization鈥� 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, recruited ad hoc via the internet. That is a model that Russia is thought to have expanded following by Western European countries after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In 2024-2025, however, Russia placed greater emphasis on the creation of 鈥渃omplex sabotage cells鈥� relying on “the closed structures of organized crime,鈥� ABW noted.

鈥淩ussians prefer individuals with experience in law enforcement (e.g., former soldiers, police officers, mercenaries from the Wagner Group),鈥� the report said.

ABW added that Russian services had also intensified training conducted on the territory of Russia itself, aimed at “professionally preparing agents for terrorist activities.”

In November 2025, Poland what Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an 鈥渦nprecedented act of sabotage,鈥� when explosions and other malfunctions on a section of railway line used for deliveries to affected two trains, including a passenger train. There were no casualties.

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