A Polish court on Friday sentenced three Ukrainian nationals to prison for their roles in a series of arson attacks across Poland and the Baltic states, part of what officials described as a broader Russian-directed sabotage campaign targeting countries that support Ukraine.
According to prosecutors, the three men, identified only as Pavlo T., Serhii R., and Vladyslav Y. under Polish privacy laws, were members of an organized group that operated between 2023 and 2024 in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, and Russia with the intent to commit “sabotage and terrorist crimes.”
Pavlo T. received a five-and-a-half-year sentence, while Serhii R. was sentenced to two and a half years and Vladyslav Y. to one year and four months in prison. The verdict is not yet final and may be appealed.
Polish authorities have intensified efforts to counter what they call a Russian “hybrid war,” marked by arson, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns aimed at destabilizing NATO states backing Kyiv.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accused Russian intelligence services of orchestrating a massive fire that destroyed a Warsaw shopping centre in May 2024, one of the largest blazes in the country’s recent history.
Investigators in Warsaw are cooperating closely with Lithuanian authorities, who have similarly blamed Russia’s military intelligence for an arson attack on an IKEA store in Vilnius just three days before the Polish shopping centre fire. Moscow has denied any involvement in either incident.
In a statement, Polish prosecutors said the convicted Ukrainians acted “jointly and in concert with other identified individuals, against whom proceedings are continuing.” Officials added that further arrests in the cross-border sabotage network remain possible as investigations expand across Central and Eastern Europe.
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
