Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) said it has uncovered a scheme by Russia-linked groups to organize protests by Ukrainian refugees in Poland. The ABW said participants were paid to attend the demonstrations, with the money coming from Russia.
ABW officers and border guards recently detained nine Ukrainian citizens and two Belarusian citizens in Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow, Zakopane, and Bydgoszcz. Polish authorities have ordered their immediate deportation.
Investigators said the detainees had links to Russian and Belarusian intelligence services. Since the fall of 2025, the group had recruited and paid Ukrainian refugees in Poland to take part in demonstrations.
The ABW said the organizers gradually built influence within the Ukrainian refugee community before pushing its members to participate in protests centered on emotionally charged issues including corruption scandals and developments in Ukrainian domestic politics. The agency described the activity as falling below the threshold of conventional aggression, calling it a hybrid operation aimed at undermining public trust and inflaming tensions while using people fleeing the war as tools of Russian influence.
The Russian-language outlet Vot Tak previously reported that Polish security services had uncovered networks using fake job ads to recruit Ukrainians and Belarusians to carry out acts of sabotage and subversion. Since 2022, the ABW has opened 71 criminal cases involving these networks.
