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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland has detained and handed over to Ukraine a 16-year-old Ukrainian who is accused of acting as a Russian agent, helping recruit other young Ukrainians to carry out terrorist attacks.
On Monday morning, Ukraine’s internal security agency, the SBU, announced that the teenager – who comes from the eastern city of Kharkiv and moved to the European Union in 2024 – had been handed over by the Polish authorities at the border.
Służba Bezpieczeństwa Ukrainy poinformowała o zatrzymaniu nastoletniego agenta rosyjskich służb specjalnych, który mieszkał w jednym z unijnych państw i wyszukiwał w Ukrainie wykonawców zamachów.https://t.co/QpYsrFcHes
— tvn24 (@tvn24) October 6, 2025
According to the SBU, the boy was recruited through the Telegram messaging platform by the Russian security services to help find fellow youngsters who would carry out attacks in Ukraine itself in return for payment. Once he found a candidate, he put them in contact with Russian operators.
Among those reportedly recruited by the suspect were two 15-year-olds in Kharkiv, who in December 2024 planted improvised explosive devices (IEDs) near police stations in the city. Another was a 21-year-old woman who planted a bomb in the city of Odessa.
Speaking to Polish broadcaster TVN, the spokeswoman for Poland’s interior ministry, Karolina Gałecka, confirmed that the 16-year-old Ukrainian had been detained by the Polish authorities and handed over to Ukraine.
The suspect could now face up to 12 years in prison if found guilty of the crime of acting as an accomplice in the commission of terrorist acts, notes the SBU.
Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for Poland’s security services, told TVN that “the boy had been located in Poland” after the Polish authorities were made aware by Ukraine that he “had been working for the Russian intelligence services for some time”.
“It is terrifying that the Russian security services are already recruiting teenagers for sabotage and espionage purposes,” he added. “A 16-year-old boy – some might say still a child – is already serving Putin’s regime.”
In August, Poland detained a 17-year-old Ukrainian who is suspected of carrying out acts of vandalism on behalf of Russia, with the aim of stirring social and diplomatic tensions. That included painting Ukrainian nationalist graffiti on a monument to Poles massacred by Ukrainian nationalists in World War Two.
In recent years, Russia has sought to recruit members of Poland’s Ukrainian and Belarusian communities – the country’s two largest immigrant groups – to carry out various acts of disinformation, sabotage and espionage.
Poland has arrested a 17-year-old Ukrainian who it says was recruited by Russia to carry out acts "intended to incite tensions between Poles and Ukrainians", including last week's vandalism of a monument to Poles massacred by Ukrainian nationalists in WW2 https://t.co/imzsjgaUVN
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 13, 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: SBU
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
