Poland expels 11 over alleged Russian plot to sway Ukrainians

Polish security services deported nine Ukrainians and two Belarusians after accusing them of using Russian money to recruit Ukrainian refugees in Poland for demonstrations against the government in Kyiv. The Internal Security Agency said the alleged operation had been active since autumn 2025 and was meant to turn a displaced population into a vehicle for political slogans.

The agency said the group sought to influence Ukrainian refugees gradually, leaning on emotionally charged issues including corruption scandals around Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government and other domestic disputes in Ukraine. Investigators said the people involved had links to Russia and Belarus, framing the case as part of a wider campaign to exploit the social fallout from Russia’s war rather than confront Poland on the battlefield.

The expulsions came as Poland remains one of Europe’s main havens for people fleeing Ukraine. UNHCR said Poland had 966,023 refugees from Ukraine with active temporary-protection registration as of 10 March 2026, a scale that has made the country both a humanitarian shelter and a target-rich environment for influence operations. That pressure intensified in January, when the Polish parliament adopted the so-called Phasing Out Act, ending the special assistance regime for Ukrainian refugees and shifting them to temporary protection under existing law from March 2026.

Poland has long said it faces a broader Russian and Belarusian hybrid campaign that includes sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation. In October 2025, a Polish special-services spokesman said 55 people had been detained since Russia’s 2022 invasion on suspicion of acting on behalf of Moscow, underscoring how security officials view the latest case as part of a sustained pattern. The Russian embassy in Warsaw did not immediately respond to the allegations.

The episode is likely to deepen debate in Poland over surveillance, refugee policy and the line between legitimate protest and foreign-directed manipulation. It also comes after Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on 21 June that a political row between Poland and Ukraine would be “a strategic mistake” that would harm both sides. For Warsaw, the case shows how Moscow’s pressure campaign now reaches into refugee communities, where vulnerability, anger and political division can be turned into instruments of leverage far from the front line.