On Monday, the Polish government revealed that its security forces had successfully dismantled a group of saboteurs working for the Russian and Belarusian security services.
This announcement came just days after a unit of Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) was accused of carrying out cyberattacks on Ukraine and several European nations.
During a press conference, Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski stated that the group's objective was to "extort information, blackmail individuals and institutions, and wage de facto cyberwar."
Gawkowski, along with Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, explained that Poland’s security services worked together to intercept and dismantle the group before it could carry out specific missions in the country.
The saboteurs were reportedly involved in a cyberattack on the Polish Anti-Doping Agency (POLADA), as part of a larger operational scheme directed by foreign security services to infiltrate Polish institutions.
According to the Kyiv Independent, the discovery comes amid a heightened level of cyberattacks in Poland, with over 400,000 reported incidents in the first half of 2024 alone, compared to 370,000 throughout all of 2023.
In recent years, Poland has uncovered several spy networks allegedly linked to Moscow and Minsk.
Warsaw has positioned itself as one of Ukraine's strongest allies since Russia’s full-scale invasion, a stance that has further deteriorated its relations with Russia and Belarus.
