Poland is preparing to expel 45 Russian diplomats after arresting a low-level civil servant on suspicion of spying, joining a counter-espionage crackdown that’s sweeping the European Union’s eastern wing, according to Bloomberg.
The Foreign Ministry in Warsaw summoned the Russian ambassador on Wednesday, government spokesman Piotr Muller said. Polish intelligence has identified 45 diplomats as officers of the Russian special services and their associates, according to Stanislaw Zaryn, a spokesman for Poland’s security services.
“Russian services are increasingly on the offensive,” Zaryn told reporters. “They are acting more and more aggressively against Poland.”
Separately, authorities detained a civil-registry clerk in Warsaw who allegedly provided Russians with documents that could be used to create false identities based on the identities of Poles and foreigners. He faces as much as 15 years in prison if convicted.
The crackdown follows similar moves by countries across the EU’s eastern wing that have expelled a swathe of Russian diplomats since Putin launched the war in Ukraine.
Poland has been on high alert over possible increased Russian intelligence activity on its territory since the war started and it began accepting Ukrainian refugees, whose number has now exceeded 2 million. Last month, Poland previously detained a Spanish reporter near Polish-Ukrainian border for allegedly spying for Russia’s GRU military intelligence