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Polish prosecutors have charged a Belarusian man with planning an arson attack on a warehouse in eastern Poland on behalf of a foreign intelligence service, the national prosecutor’s office said on Monday.
The 27-year-old, identified only as Vitalij S. under Polish privacy law, is accused of filming, photographing and gathering information on the site in Lublin province in July, as well as passing the material to foreign operatives.
Prosecutors did not specify which country he was working for. If convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison.
Prokurator przedstawił obywatelowi Białorusi zarzut działania na rzecz obcego wywiadu i czynienia przygotowań do podpalenia obiektu magazynowego na terenie województwa lubelskiego: ⬇️https://t.co/feqz63Xrl6
— Prokuratura (@PK_GOV_PL) August 18, 2025
Prosecutors said that Vitalij S. has pleaded guilty to both of the charges against him, which are working for a foreign intelligence service and preparing acts of sabotage.
They did not specify which site the Belarusian man targeted, but said it was a warehouse located in Lublin province. That province borders Ukraine and is also home to Rzeszów-Jasionka airport – the main transit hub for foreign aid to Ukraine.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poland has arrested a number of people suspected of spying and carrying out sabotage on behalf of Russia and Belarus.
In May, a Belarusian man was sentenced to two years and two months in prison for spying on behalf of Minsk.
Earlier the same month, Poland charged two Ukrainian citizens with terrorism and espionage over their alleged involvement in an arson attack carried out on behalf of Russia that in 2024 destroyed Warsaw’s largest shopping centre.
Over the past year, there have been a series of acts of sabotage, disinformation and cyberattacks that Poland says were carried out by agents – often Ukrainian and Belarusian immigrants – acting on behalf of Russia. In response, Poland has closed Russia’s consulates in Poznań and Kraków.
Poland is facing a new type of threat: Russia's recruitment of civilians – often migrants from Ukraine and Belarus – to carry out espionage and sabotage.@adam_lelonek explains why this trend has emerged and how the Polish authorities have responded to it https://t.co/GSeBMlbPuV
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 9, 2025
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Służby Specjalne (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
