The ABW said on Wednesday that Russian, Belarusian and Chinese intelligence activity against Poland has intensified, with espionage investigations in the past two years matching the total recorded over the previous three decades.
The agency, Poland’s domestic counterintelligence and security service, said it opened 69 espionage investigations in 2024 and 2025. That was the same number as in the entire period from 1991 to 2023.
Forty-eight of the new investigations began in 2025 and 21 in 2024.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 91 people have been given the status of suspects, while 82 have faced charges linked to various forms of espionage under Poland’s Criminal Code.
The agency said it had detained 62 people.
The report points to a sharp increase in hostile activity by Russian services, closely cooperating Belarusian services, and Chinese intelligence.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s key political, military, and logistics supporters since 2022, making it a major target for espionage, sabotage, and disinformation operations.
The ABW said Russia’s activities toward Poland include attempts to discredit the country internationally, weaken public trust in the state and its institutions, and promote pro-Russian, anti-system, anti-European Union, and anti-NATO narratives.
It said Russian operations also aim to polarize and intimidate Polish society and exploit historical tensions, especially in Polish-Ukrainian relations.
The agency said its counterintelligence officers, working with other services, had prevented attempts to attack identified anti-Putin activists.
It also said Russian operations were becoming more professional, with networked sabotage cells built around closed organized-crime structures.
The report said some foreign agents were being trained on Russian territory for terrorist activity, with foreigners making up a large part of those recruited.
In 2025, the ABW launched a Telegram chatbot, “ABW_STOPdywersji_bot,” in Polish, English, Ukrainian and Russian. The tool allows people to report contact by foreign services, especially offers to carry out sabotage, reconnaissance of targets, or other hostile activity.
The agency said the effects of its work went beyond criminal proceedings. It said counterintelligence operations had stopped specific foreign intelligence activities through entry bans, expulsions from Poland, and decisions to refuse or revoke accreditation for representatives of foreign states.
The ABW also prepared more than 430 analyses and briefings on current intelligence threats for Polish authorities in 2024 and 2025.
The report said Belarusian services continue to treat Poland as a priority operational target. Their activity is focused partly on infiltrating and disrupting Belarusian opposition communities in Poland.
Many Belarusians fled to Poland after the repression that followed the disputed 2020 presidential election in Belarus.
The ABW said Belarusian military intelligence also cooperates closely with Russia and works to identify Polish and allied military sites, as well as critical infrastructure. It said Belarusian services conduct mass recruitment on Belarusian territory and then try to send agents to Poland.
The agency warned that in 2024 and 2025, Belarusian citizens were increasingly targeted for recruitment through blackmail and direct coercion.
The report also warned of growing Chinese intelligence activity in Poland. It said the People’s Republic of China uses economic expansion in the region to gain influence over the economy and politics, while Poland is subject to pressure and lobbying.
“With the growth of Chinese activity in Poland, the intelligence services of that country seek to create a positive image of the People’s Republic of China,” the ABW said, adding that such efforts used domestic media and attempts to reach Polish mass media.
The agency said Chinese intelligence was also interested in the Chinese diaspora in Poland.
It warned that Chinese officers had tried in the past two years to recruit experts, scientists, officials, and people linked to Poland’s security ministries under the cover of well-paid assignments.
Source: IAR, PAP