Poland mentioned on Friday that it had detained an expert athlete on expenses of spying for the Russian authorities, within the 14th arrest stemming from the dismantling of what the authorities say was a Russian spy ring that aimed to sabotage arms shipments to Ukraine.
Polish prosecutors mentioned in a statement that the athlete, a Russian citizen, was linked to a community that “performed intelligence and propaganda actions towards Poland and ready acts of sabotage” for Russia. They didn’t identify the suspect, although Polish news sources reported that he was an expert hockey participant.
“Russian spies are falling one after the other!” mentioned Poland’s justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, in a Twitter post on Friday. “A spy who operated below the guise of a sportsman has been captured.”
Officers mentioned the athlete was going through espionage expenses punishable by as much as 10 years in jail.
In March, Polish prosecutors detained 9 foreigners who had been accused of spying for Russia and plotting to sabotage Polish infrastructure used to move Western arms into neighboring Ukraine.
Poland, a NATO member and one in all Europe’s staunchest supporters of Ukraine, has been an important transit level for weapons and ammunition supplied by Western nations to assist Ukraine defend itself towards Russia’s invasion. The presence in Poland of a Russian spy ring attempting to wreck its infrastructure would sign a dangerous escalation by Moscow, which has to date prevented putting at targets inside alliance territory.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, on Friday steered that Moscow’s embassy in Poland would “clear issues up.”
“In fact the world of the embassy now could be very exhausting,” he added, “due to the frenzied, Russophobic place.”
Prosecutors mentioned that the suspect, who arrived in Poland in 2021, was paid to hold out “actions involving, amongst different, figuring out crucial infrastructure” in a number of provinces.
Polish news media reported that he performed with the nationwide hockey crew, Zaglebie Sosnowiec.
The crew’s coach, Grzegorz Klich, confirmed that the participant was arrested earlier this month, however that he had signed to play with the crew earlier than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“We didn’t have any suspicions towards him earlier than that,” he was quoted as saying in an interview revealed Friday in Fakt, a Polish tabloid. “He behaved usually. That’s why we’re shocked by this case.”
Polish intelligence officers mentioned they detained the participant within the province of Silesia, southern Poland, the place he had carried out most of his actions.
Anatol Magdziarz contributed reporting.