Poland Charges Ukrainian Teen with Alleged Russian-Backed Sabotage Plot

Polish authorities have charged an 18-year-old Ukrainian national with carrying out an alleged sabotage campaign on behalf of Russian intelligence services in a case prosecutors say was designed to inflame tensions between Poland and Ukraine.

The suspect, identified only as Illia K. in accordance with Polish privacy laws, faces 47 criminal charges linked to alleged acts committed between November 2024 and August 2025, when he was arrested.

If convicted, he could face life imprisonment.

According to Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW), the alleged operations were intended to exploit long-standing historical grievances between Poland and Ukraine.

"The aim was to incite ethnic tensions between Poland and Ukraine," the agency said in a statement.

Prosecutors said that although the teenager was allegedly motivated by financial gain rather than ideology, most of the actions were carried out for the benefit of a foreign intelligence service.

Investigators alleged that he received instructions from an unidentified handler through an encrypted messaging platform and submitted photographs as proof that assigned tasks had been completed.

Authorities accused the suspect of vandalising several monuments, including the Monument to the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto and memorials dedicated to Polish victims of the Volhynia massacres in Domostawa and Wrocław.

Investigators said the memorials were defaced with inscriptions and symbols glorifying the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a controversial nationalist force viewed very differently in Poland and Ukraine.

The ABW also alleged that the suspect recruited other individuals to participate in the operations and paid them using cryptocurrencies reportedly registered in Russia and China.

Prosecutors further alleged that Illia K. was preparing to fly a drone over the vehicle of Polish President Karol Nawrocki during the country's Armed Forces Day parade in Warsaw on August 15 last year.

He was arrested three days before the parade took place.

The case comes amid continuing sensitivity over the Volhynia massacres of 1943–1944, during which tens of thousands of ethnic Poles were killed by the UPA in territories that are now part of western Ukraine.

The issue has remained one of the most contentious aspects of Polish-Ukrainian relations.

Earlier this year, tensions resurfaced after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree naming a military unit after the "Heroes of the UPA," prompting President Nawrocki to revoke one of Poland's highest state honours previously awarded to Zelensky.

The ABW said it opened 48 espionage investigations last year, more than double the number recorded in 2024 warning that Russian intelligence agencies have increasingly sought to undermine Poland by exploiting historical and ethnic divisions, particularly in relations between Poland and Ukraine.

The investigation into the alleged sabotage campaign remains ongoing.