Poland indicts gang accused of arson attacks on behalf of foreign intelligence

Six men – three of them Polish and three Belarusian – have been indicted by prosecutors in Poland on suspicion of being part of a criminal group that carried out arson on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency.

The National Prosecutor's Office announced the indictments on Wednesday, naming the Polish suspects only as Kamil K., Dawid P. and Łukasz K. and the Belarusians as Stepan K. (pictured above), Andrei B., Yaraslau S., in accordance with Polish privacy law.

They are accused of being behind a fire at a restaurant in Gdynia in 2023 that resulted in 3 million zlotys (€705,000) worth of damage and the burning of a storage facility in Marki near Warsaw in 2024. They also allegedly attempted to burn down a warehouse in Gdańsk in 2024.

Prosecutors say that the arson attacks were carried out “on behalf of foreign intelligence” with the “aim of inciting social unrest and creating a sense of the state authorities' helplessness.”

They do not say which country or countries were behind them, but the Polish authorities have regularly blamed Russia for such acts of sabotage in Poland and other European countries.

One of the suspects, Stepan K., was separately charged earlier this year with setting fire to a large retail store in Warsaw on behalf of Russia.

Prosecutors also report that their investigation into the gang was launched thanks to evidence gathered while investigating a Ukrainian man, Serhiy S., who was recently sentenced to prison for carrying out acts of sabotage on behalf of Russia.

The six men are accused of operating as an organized criminal group. But each has been indicted on varying counts relating not only to the arson attacks but also to drug and arms trafficking. Those accused of carrying out arson on behalf of Russia face ten years to life in prison if found guilty.

Two of the men – Stepan K. and Dawid P. – have guilt not guilty while the others have admitted to some or all of the charges against them. Three of the men – Stepan K., Yaraslau S. and Łukasz K. – are being held in pretrial detention.

Russia has been accused of hiring local operators in Poland – often Ukrainian and Belarusian immigrants – to carry out sabotage and espionage operations.

In May, two Ukrainians were charged over their alleged involvement in a 2024 arson attack carried out on behalf of Russia that resulted in the destruction of Warsaw's largest shopping center. In response, Poland has closed Russia's consulates in Poznań and Kraków .

Main image credit: Warsaw Police Headquarters (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL )