Russian espionage cases

Tusk wants to “burn out treason with a red-hot iron”

The Polish Prime Minister is starting to see red in view of the numerous Russian entanglements.(Bild: APA/AFP/Sergei GAPON)

The growing number of espionage cases in Europe is also increasingly attracting the attention of politicians. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has now reacted particularly drastically to the arrest of Polish citizens who are suspected of having collaborated with Russian intelligence services. He is now threatening harsh consequences.

"There will be no leniency for collaborators of the Russian secret services. We will burn out every betrayal and every attempt at destabilization with a red-hot iron," he wrote on the short messaging service X (formerly Twitter) on Friday.

Radical football fans had targeted Zelenskyi
Regarding the current status of the investigation into two specific conspiracies, he said that a Pole responsible for preventing an assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi had been arrested two days ago. The man had collaborated with Russian secret services.

A Belarusian working for the Russians, who gave two Poles the order to attack an employee of the deceased Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, was also arrested, as were the assassins themselves. The latter were radical soccer fans, so-called Ultras, Tusk wrote.

More and more arrests in Poland
On Thursday, the Polish authorities announced the arrest of a man who is said to have spied on the airport in Rzeszow in south-eastern Poland in order to prepare an assassination attempt on Zelensky. The airport is considered a transshipment point for Western arms deliveries to Ukraine and a transfer point for Zelensky and other Ukrainian politicians on visits abroad.

On Friday, the arrest of two Poles wanted in Lithuania was announced. They are alleged to have carried out an attack on Navalny confidant Leonid Volkov in March. Volkov was seriously injured in Vilnius.