A Ukrainian who spied for Russia was detained in Poland. ABW action in Wrocław

Employees of the Internal Security Agency detained a man in Wroclaw who was acting on behalf of the Russian special services. It turned out that he is a citizen of Ukraine and, in particular, he was supposed to set fire to several objects on the territory of the city.

A Ukrainian in Poland Turned Out to Be a Russian Spy

The Internal Security Agency of Poland (ABW) was informed about the detention of the Ukrainian. As ABW employees found out, a citizen of Ukraine, acting on the instructions of the Russian special services, planned to set fire to objects in Wroclaw, which are located in proximity to infrastructure objects of strategic importance.

It is reported that the special service detained the spy on January 31 in Poznan. During the search, evidence of a planned crime was found in his possession.

The man is currently in temporary custody. "The district court of Wrocław-Seredmistja, at the request of the prosecutor's office, chose a preventive measure for the suspect in the form of a temporary arrest for three months," the report reads.

The spy was charged with participation in an organized international criminal group, as well as planning subversive activities on the territory of the Republic of Poland on behalf of the Russian special services. Now he faces up to 12 years in prison.

Hundreds of Russian Portals in Europe Spread Propaganda

The French cyberspace protection bureau Viginum has identified a Russian network of 193 news portals through which disinformation campaigns against European countries, including Poland, are coordinated. Viginum called this operation "Portal Kombat", as reported by Gazeta Wyborcza.

The portals began their work in 2022, following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Pages that previously covered Ukrainian-Russian relations began to spread Russian propaganda. Later, other news portals began to be added to them.

In Poland, the portal Pravda-pl[dot]com is responsible for propaganda. With the same design and writing style, experts found websites in French, German (along with Austrian and Swiss), as well as English. They were all created in June 2023. Since last September, five Pravda propaganda portals, each in a different language, have published over 150,000 articles.

According to Viginum, they recorded an average of approximately 31,000 visits in November 2023.

The most active in terms of content was the English-language portal, followed by Spanish, German, French, and, at the very end, Polish pages.