Poland is stepping up security measures around Rzeszow-Jasionka airport – the main transit hub for foreign aid to Ukraine – due to recent cases of sabotage that are believed to have been carried out on behalf of Russia.
“We are facing a foreign state that is conducting hostile and – in military parlance – kinetic action on Polish territory,” interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak told Bloomberg. “There has never been anything like this before.”
Siemoniak confirmed that security at the airport had been increased, though without specifying what particular measures had been taken.
Last week, Prime Minister Donald Tusk revealed that Russia was “likely” to have been behind a fire that had recently destroyed Warsaw’s largest shopping centre.
On May 21, he announced that nine people had been charged with carrying out sabotage on behalf of Russia, though at least one of those cases related to a person detained in January. The following day, he announced that a further three people had been detained overnight.
In December 2023, fourteen foreign nationals – most of them Ukrainian citizens – were found guilty of espionage and planned sabotage on behalf of Russia. Among the targets they observed were the airport and train station in Rzeszow.
Siemoniak told Bloomberg that recent acts of sabotage had been ordered by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, which he noted was also carrying out similar actions in other parts of Europe.
The interior minister said that, to carry out such acts, “one-time agents”, such as football hooligans or organised crime groups, were recruited in return for payment.
“This is a very serious situation,” said Siemoniak. “We’re no longer talking about agents of influence or some online activities. These are individuals who are ready to come and set things on fire.”
In April, two men – both Polish citizens – were detained in Poland on suspicion of carrying out an attack on Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov in Lithuania.
A day earlier, another Polish national was detained on suspicion of helping Russian intelligence with a planned assassination attempt against Volodymyr Zelensky. Among the tasks reportedly assigned to the man was gathering information on security at Rzeszow airport.
As Poland’s closest major airport to Ukraine, Rzeszow-Jasionka has become the main transport point for Western weapons and other aid being sent to Ukraine, as well as the main stopover point for officials travelling to and from Ukraine. (Notes from Poland)