Poland stated 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 stated in an announcement that the athlete, a Russian citizen, was linked to a community that “performed intelligence and propaganda actions in opposition to Poland and ready acts of sabotage” for Russia. They didn’t title the suspect, although Polish information sources reported that he was an expert hockey participant.
“Russian spies are falling one after the other!” stated Poland’s justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, in a Twitter publish on Friday. “A spy who operated beneath the guise of a sportsman has been captured.”
Officers stated the athlete was going through espionage expenses punishable by as much as 10 years in jail.
In March, Polish prosecutors detained 9 foreigners who have 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 a significant transit level for weapons and ammunition supplied by Western international locations to assist Ukraine defend itself in opposition to Russia’s invasion. The presence in Poland of a Russian spy ring making an attempt to wreck its infrastructure would sign a dangerous escalation by Moscow, which has to this point prevented putting at targets inside alliance territory.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, on Friday instructed that Moscow’s embassy in Poland would “clear issues up.”
“After all the world of the embassy now may be very exhausting,” he added, “due to the frenzied, Russophobic place.”
Prosecutors stated that the suspect, who arrived in Poland in 2021, was paid to hold out “actions involving, amongst different, figuring out essential infrastructure” in a number of provinces.
Polish information media reported that he performed with the nationwide hockey staff, Zaglebie Sosnowiec.
The staff’s coach, Grzegorz Klich, confirmed that the participant was arrested earlier this month, however that he had signed to play with the staff earlier than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“We didn’t have any suspicions in opposition to him earlier than that,” he was quoted as saying in an interview printed Friday in Fakt, a Polish tabloid. “He behaved usually. That’s why we’re stunned by this case.”
Polish intelligence officers stated 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.
