Lyce · Hybrid Watch
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Poland says Russian secret service hired a Colombian national for arson attacks.
Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) announced that a 27-year-old Colombian national, acting on behalf of Russian intelligence services, carried out two arson attacks in Poland in May 2024 as part of a broader hybrid-war campaign. The first incident occurred in Warsaw on 23 May, when a construction-supply depot was set ablaze; a week later, a similar facility in Radom was targeted. The suspect received training from a handler tied to Russian services—specifically how to prepare incendiary materials, use Molotov cocktails, execute the fire, and document the outcome for use in propaganda. After the Polish incidents, the same individual reportedly travelled to the Czech Republic and set fire to a bus depot, and allegedly prepared another attack on a shopping mall before detention. Photographs and video of the fires were later disseminated by Russian-language media outlets, falsely claiming one of the depots was a military logistics site in Radom storing Western aid for Ukraine—raising concerns of deliberate misinformation layered on sabotage. The dynamics illustrate key features of hybrid-warfare: use of third-country proxies, covert financing/instructions from the adversary state, targeting of civilian/commercial infrastructure linked to military logistics, and the coupling of physical disruption with disinformation narratives.
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Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) announced that a 27-year-old Colombian national, acting on behalf of Russian intelligence services, carried out two arson attacks in Poland in May 2024 as part of a broader hybrid-war campaign. The first incident occurred in Warsaw on 23 May, when a construction-supply depot was set ablaze; a week later, a similar facility in Radom was targeted. The suspect received training from a handler tied to Russian services—specifically how to prepare incendiary materials, use Molotov cocktails, execute the fire, and document the outcome for use in propaganda. After the Polish incidents, the same individual reportedly travelled to the Czech Republic and set fire to a bus depot, and allegedly prepared another attack on a shopping mall before detention. Photographs and video of the fires were later disseminated by Russian-language media outlets, falsely claiming one of the depots was a military logistics site in Radom storing Western aid for Ukraine—raising concerns of deliberate misinformation layered on sabotage. The dynamics illustrate key features of hybrid-warfare: use of third-country proxies, covert financing/instructions from the adversary state, targeting of civilian/commercial infrastructure linked to military logistics, and the coupling of physical disruption with disinformation narratives.