The key facts

  • Detained on Friday at the Military Medical Academy in Łódź on the orders of the Łódź-Polesie prosecutor's office
  • Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk: the suspect 'clearly exposed himself' as scouting facilities of the Polish army
  • The foreign intelligence service he allegedly worked for has not been identified — Polish media report

Detention in Łódź

Polish military police detained a man with dual Polish-Ukrainian citizenship suspected of scouting military facilities while taking a reserve officer training course. Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk confirmed on Monday that the detention took place at the Military Medical Academy in Łódź after the man attracted the attention of the Military Counterintelligence Service. 'He clearly exposed himself as a person scouting certain facilities of the Polish armed forces,' Tomczyk told journalists.

Details of the case

The detention on Friday was carried out on the orders of the Łódź-Polesie district prosecutor's office following an investigation by military counterintelligence. According to Tomczyk, the man previously obtained Polish citizenship and also holds Ukrainian citizenship; the authorities may turn to Ukrainian intelligence services as part of the investigation. The academy confirmed the detention of a participant in the reserve training programme but declined further comment. According to the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, the detainee was found with several mobile phones, sets of documents and stamps, a large amount of foreign currency and gold; the authorities have not publicly confirmed these details. On Monday, a court was to consider the question of pre-trial detention. Polish media reported that it is not yet known which foreign intelligence service, according to the investigation, the suspect was working for.

Context

The case comes against the backdrop of a series of investigations into espionage and sabotage in Poland: Warsaw states that since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, foreign intelligence services have increasingly targeted military and critical infrastructure. In May, the Internal Security Agency detained three Poles accused of working for a foreign intelligence service: according to the investigation, the group scouted the deployment of NATO troops in Poland and prepared possible sabotage on the instructions of a Russian citizen linked to the FSB. Polish authorities also stated that the September arson attack on a Starlink ground station in the central part of the country was carried out on behalf of a foreign intelligence service; another person was detained who, according to the investigation, photographed and filmed the facility and its security before the attack.