Poland issues warrant for soldier accused of joining Russian army and spreading disinformation on TikTok

Jan 29, 2026 | Defence, Law

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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 issued an arrest warrant for a former Polish soldier accused of joining the Russian army and spreading disinformation on behalf of Russian intelligence, including through videos on social-media platform TikTok.

On Thursday, the district prosecutor’s office in Kraków announced that, following an investigation by the Internal Security Agency (ABW), it had charged the unnamed man with the crimes of participating in the activities of a foreign intelligence service and taking up service in a foreign army.

He is accused of “acting on behalf of Russia by conducting disinformation, including through the TikTok website, consisting, among other things, of the dissemination of false and misleading information aimed at causing serious disruptions in the political system of Poland”.

The man in question has a channel on TikTok titled PolaknaDonbasie (A Pole in Donbas), which has around 7,100 followers and has posted just over 470 videos since September 2025. The most recent is from Wednesday this week.

However, he has previously had other accounts on the platform with higher numbers of followers. But they were then blocked by TikTok, according to Demagag, a Polish fact-checking service.

Both Demagog and Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading Polish daily, report that the man is called Dariusz M. (with his surname masked under Polish privacy law) and previously served in the 6th Logistics Battalion and 2nd Reconnaissance Regiment of the Polish army.

He joined Russian forces in 2023, first as a volunteer then later as a soldier after receiving Russian citizenship.

 

In one of his videos, Dariusz M. said that he wants Russia’s so-called “special operation” in Ukraine “to reach Poland and put things in order”. He referred to the European Union as the “Fourth Reich” and condemned Poland’s “traitorous government”.

He has also encouraged Poles to join the Russian military and asked them to take photos of any military transports they see passing through Poland to Ukraine, reports Gazeta Wyborcza, which says that some of the videos on his earlier accounts garnered millions of views.

In their statement, the district prosecutor’s office reported that Kraków’s district court has agreed to their request to issue an arrest warrant for the suspect. However, they noted that he is “currently probably staying in the territory of Russia”. That makes it highly unlikely that he will face justice

If convicted, the crimes he is accused of carry potential prison sentences of up to eight years (for spreading disinformation on behalf of foreign intelligence) and up to five years (for serving in a foreign military)

In 2021, an active Polish soldier, Emil Czeczko, crossed the border to Belarus, where he claimed asylum and later appeared on state TV, making unfounded accusations against Poland. The following year, Belarusian authorities announced that he had been found dead by hanging at his home in Belarus.

Poland has in recent years detained, charged, and in some cases convicted dozens of agents accused of conducting espionage, sabotage, disinformation and other so-called “hybrid actions” on behalf of Russia.

Earlier this month, Polish prosecutors indicted five people – four Ukrainian citizens and one Russian – accused of carrying out a plot on behalf of Russia to plant explosives in packages that were then dispatched by courier services across Europe.


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.

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