Poland charges man with spying for Russia

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo of agents from Poland’s Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego — or Internal Security Agency (Government of Poland photo)

WARSAW (Reuters) -     Prosecutors in Poland have charged a Ukrainian man who was born in Russia with participating in activities linked to Russian intelligence, they said on Tuesday. 

The Polish Internal Security Agency had detained the man earlier in March, and a district court in Warsaw decided at the time to detain him for three months. 

"The suspect's activities consisted in reconnaissance of military facilities in Poland on behalf of the aforementioned intelligence," prosecutors said in a statement, adding it was a crime punishable by imprisonment from five to 30 years.

Warsaw's support for Kyiv in its defence against Russia's invasion has made Poland a target for Russian espionage and sabotage. Prosecutors indicted two men in November in a case tied to cooperation with Belarusian intelligence services.

"The suspect admitted to committing the act he was charged with and provided an explanation in which he described the ideological motives for his activities resulting from his ties with Russia," prosecutors said.

 (Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Bernadette Baum)