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Sabotage Case in Poland
Polish prosecutors have charged an 18-year-old Ukrainian man, identified as Illia K, with carrying out 47 criminal acts between November 2024 and August 2025 on behalf of Russian intelligence, aimed at inciting tensions between Poland and Ukraine.
“The aim was to incite ethnic tensions between Poland and Ukraine”
The BBC says the alleged sabotage included desecrating memorials to Polish victims of the UPA, with prosecutors stating, "The aim was to incite ethnic tensions between Poland and Ukraine," as the ABW described the goal.
The Newser report adds that prosecutors allege he was paid to desecrate memorials honoring Polish victims of Ukrainian massacres in World War II, and that he was charged with preparing a sabotage attack involving a drone.
According to the BBC, Illia K was also charged with making preparations to fly a drone over Polish president Karol Nawrocki's vehicle during last year's Polish Armed Forces' Day parade in Warsaw on August 15, and he was arrested three days before the event.
The case is tied to historical disputes in which the UPA took part in the murder of tens of thousands of Poles during World War Two known as the Volyhnia massacre, a painful issue that the BBC says has bedevilled relations between the neighbours ever since.
Quotes, Recruitment, and Charges
The BBC reports that prosecutors said Illia K acted for financial rather than ideological reasons, but that most of the alleged acts were "for the benefit of foreign intelligence".
In the same case, the BBC says the ABW alleged he allegedly recruited people to take part in the crimes using cryptocurrencies registered in Russia and China to pay them, and that he was given tasks by an unidentified person via a messaging service.
Poland’s Internal Security Agency said the operating methods of Russian intelligence services were exposed, and POLITICO.eu quotes the agency saying, "Once again, investigators uncovered the operating methods of Russian intelligence services".
POLITICO.eu also reports that Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesperson for Poland’s minister for special services, wrote on X that the young Ukrainian, acting on behalf of Russian services, "placed inscriptions on buildings and memorial sites glorifying the UPA".
The BBC further states that Illia K allegedly vandalised the Monument to the Jewish Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto in the Polish capital and monuments to the Polish victims of the Volyhnia massacre in Domostawa and Wrocław, by placing inscriptions and symbols that glorified the UPA.
Broader Hybrid-Warfare Stakes
Beyond the courtroom case, the Slate.fr report says a massive cyberattack attributed to Russia nearly plunged Poland into darkness, with the Polish Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski attributing responsibility for the attack to the Kremlin on January 13.
“everything indicates this is Russian sabotage. It's an attempt to destabilize the situation in Poland.”
Slate.fr quotes Gawkowski saying, "everything indicates this is Russian sabotage. It's an attempt to destabilize the situation in Poland," and it adds that cybersecurity researchers concluded on Friday, January 23, that the Polish power grid had been attacked by a wiper-type malware.
The same Slate.fr account says the cyberattack was carried out in an attempt to plunge nearly half a million households into darkness and cold, and it describes the objective as disrupting communications between renewable energy installations and electricity distribution operators.
In parallel, 21News frames Poland as already living in Russia’s gray war, linking cyberattacks, railway sabotage, drones, migratory pressure at the Belarusian border, and aviation mobilization after Russian strikes on Ukraine.
21News says the country now treats this type of operation as strategic sabotage, noting that in December 2025 a large-scale cyberattack against Poland's energy infrastructure nearly caused a national blackout affecting up to half a million people.
