Poland is strengthening preventive counterintelligence measures in response to a surge in Russian hybrid activity aimed at aggravating relations between Warsaw and Kyiv, the country’s minister-coordinator of special services said Wednesday.
Tomasz Siemoniak told RMF FM radio that Polish security services are preparing to counter possible sabotage operations by Russia, which he said had sharply escalated hybrid operations in recent weeks. The goal, he said, is to destabilize the political situation in Poland and drive a wedge between Poland and Ukraine.
“Russia’s dream, the dream of Russian services, was and remains maximum tension between Poland and Ukraine,” Siemoniak said.
The minister said Polish agencies are detecting increased activity by Russian trolls and bots attempting to stoke online disputes and influence public opinion. Such campaigns, he said, are accompanied by efforts to create and provoke conflicts over Polish-Ukrainian relations.
Physical provocations not ruled out
Siemoniak said he does not rule out broader provocations, including physical attacks on Ukrainians in Poland, which could further inflame societal sentiment. He said Polish services have detected interest from individuals acting on behalf of Russian intelligence in objects that are important for Polish-Ukrainian cooperation.
These targets include not only military sites and critical infrastructure, but also locations involved in providing military aid to Ukraine, humanitarian organizations and other facilities reflecting bilateral cooperation.
“This information war has risen to a much higher level. It is very easy now to pour oil on the fire, and that is a problem, because Russia’s dream was and remains maximum tension between Poland and Ukraine. We must take into account that Russian services will try to exploit this tension,” Siemoniak said.
Western concerns over hybrid strikes
The minister said the scaling up of the Russian threat and Moscow’s preparation of sabotage operations are causing concern among leading Western intelligence services regarding the risk of hybrid strikes or forceful actions against Poland and the Baltic states.
According to Siemoniak, Moscow has moved from blackmail to practical destabilization, threatening Polish-Ukrainian interaction and the stability of key transit nodes on NATO’s eastern flank. Polish services have detected anomalous activity from Russian bot farms, confirming that Moscow has taken its information war to a new level.
The interest of Russian agents in logistics, humanitarian and military facilities suggests a shift toward systemic destabilization inside the European Union, Siemoniak said.
Russia aims to turn critical infrastructure supporting Ukraine in Central and Eastern Europe into a zone of permanent hybrid danger, meaning transport corridors, coordination centers and humanitarian offices must be placed under special protection, he added.
Long-term goal: maximum tension
Polish security authorities have warned that the Kremlin is using a hybrid strategy to escalate public sentiment, including preparing physical provocations and attacks against Ukrainians in Poland to create artificial chaos in Europe. Siemoniak stressed that creating maximum tension between Poland and Ukraine is a long-term goal of Russian intelligence agencies.
The Kremlin’s attempts to provoke conflicts between Ukrainians and citizens of European states align with Russia’s strategic objective to weaken European support for Ukraine, destabilize the internal political situation in EU countries, and create favorable conditions for its own geopolitical interests, according to Polish officials.
Siemoniak said coordinated countermeasures against Russian information operations, intelligence-sharing among European partners, and timely exposure of pro-Russian influence networks are necessary conditions for protecting Europe’s democratic space.
The controlled propaganda machine of Russia’s special services is mass-distributing baseless claims about rising crime and EU criminalization allegedly caused by Ukrainian refugees, manipulating individual incidents to shape negative attitudes toward the Ukrainian community and undermine EU solidarity policies. In Poland’s information space, the intensification of anti-Ukrainian rhetoric creates risks of further deterioration of bilateral relations and provides fertile ground for Kremlin information operations aimed at polarizing Polish society and weakening support for Ukraine.
