'Disposable spies': Poland records unprecedented number of Russian espionage cases
Key takeaways
- Warsaw has recorded an unprecedented number of hybrid attacks on its territory since 2024, Poland’s internal security service (ABW) said in a report published this week.
- As a result, Poland conducted as many counter-intelligence investigations in 2024 and 2025 as it had in the previous three decades.
- European law enforcement and intelligence officials began noticing these efforts back in 2022, The New Yorker reported in February.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Warsaw has recorded an unprecedented number of hybrid attacks on its territory since 2024, Poland’s internal security service (ABW) said in a report published this week. Amateur spies once used by Russian intelligence services have laid the groundwork for more complex operations, according to a researcher who has been following the emergence of these “single-use agents”.
By: Sonya CIESNIK Police cars are seen close to the railways that were damaged in an explosion on the rail line in Mika, next to Garwolin, central Poland on November 17, 2025, after the line presumably was targeted in a sabotage act. © Wojtek Radwanski, AFP Last year and the year before saw a rise in espionage activity in Poland, “primarily on the part of Russian and closely allied Belarusian special services as well as China”, the Internal Security Agency (ABW) said in a report published on May 6.
As a result, Poland conducted as many counter-intelligence investigations in 2024 and 2025 as it had in the previous three decades.