Sabotage preparation, remote recruitment, and data collection on military sites account for a significant share of Poland's espionage docket, and public arrests have not dented the pace, RBC-Ukraine reported on 15 September. The published figures cover only the highest-complexity investigations, so with district prosecutors' cases counted in, the real scale of Russian activity is larger still.

Russia's covert campaign inside the EU has escalated from online disinformation into physical attacks since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine—arson at defense plants, assassination plots, and bomb-rigged drones found at European airports.

Recorded sabotage incidents across Europe tripled between 2023 and 2024 alone. Poland, as NATO's primary overland corridor for Western military aid to Ukraine, sits at the center of that pressure—its railway routes near the Rzeszów logistics hub have drawn particular attention.

What the prosecutors count as espionage

Poland's National Prosecutor's Office opened 67 criminal cases under Article 130 of the Criminal Code—espionage and activity on behalf of a foreign intelligence service—during 2025, spokesperson Przemysław Nowak told RBC-Ukraine. In the first eight months of 2026 alone, prosecutors added at least 40 more.

At that pace, 2026 could yield roughly 60 new cases, RBC-Ukraine noted, concluding that the tempo of recruitment and sabotage preparation is not slowing but staying steadily high despite public detentions and strengthened counterintelligence.

Courier bombs and expendable operatives

Earlier, Polish law enforcement exposed two Russian citizens prosecutors say worked for Russian special services. One of them planned to send an explosive device through a delivery service—part of a wider Russian sabotage campaign that recruits low-cost, expendable operatives for arson and disruption across the EU.

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) detained a Ukrainian Air Force major suspected of spying for Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the agency reported on July 3.

The alleged spy, arrested during a special operation in Lviv Oblast, was reportedly recruited through his ex-wife, a former military officer now cooperating with Russian forces in occupied Melitopol.

According to the SBU, the officer was gathering coordinates of operational airfields, logistics hubs, and maintenance centers used by Ukrainian combat aircraft. If successful, Russia intended to launch missile and drone strikes on those locations.

The SBU said the operation was coordinated with Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief and that the agent was supervised by Aleksandr Belodedov, an officer in the FSB's Alpha special operations unit.

Authorities said they intercepted the agent before any damage was done, documenting his communication with Russian intelligence and securing military sites at risk.

The suspect has been charged with high treason committed during wartime by a group of individuals under Ukraine's Criminal Code. He remains in custody and faces life imprisonment with asset seizure.

His ex-wife was also charged in absentia for treason during wartime.

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