Officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation of the Police (CBŚP) detained a 25-year-old Ukrainian citizen in Warsaw, suspected of involvement in a group of saboteurs acting on Russia’s behalf, RMF FM reported. The man is to be transferred to Romania under a European Arrest Warrant.
According to RMF FM’s findings, the detainee is Artem S. Officers from the counter-terrorism unit entered an apartment in the Ursus district of Warsaw, where he was staying. The radio reports that the man did not resist. As of publication, the police, the prosecutor’s office, and the Internal Security Agency (ABW) had not issued an official statement on the matter.
Fire at the Romarm plants
The case concerns a fire on 14 September at the Carfil industrial platform in Brașov (Hung. Brassó) in central Romania. The flames broke out next to Carfil SA, which belongs to the state arms group Romarm. As Reuters reported, citing the Ukrainian outlet RBC-Ukraine, the fire engulfed a building of about 1,000 square metres that housed car workshops, a vehicle inspection station and a car wash.
On Monday, 26 October, Romania’s Intelligence Service (SRI) and the DIICOT prosecutor’s office announced the dismantling of a sabotage network which, they claim, was coordinated from Russia. According to Al Jazeera, DIICOT named three suspects: two Belarusians and a Ukrainian, living in EU countries. The first two were provisionally arrested in Germany, where, according to investigators, they were preparing similar acts. A European arrest warrant was issued on 26 October for the third suspect, who was located in Poland. Romanian authorities have begun efforts to extradite all three.
The detainee’s role
RMF FM, citing its own findings, writes that Artem S.’s role was reconnaissance: he was to identify a facility to set on fire and pay for the operation. Romanian services reportedly indicate that he cooperated with the two Belarusians detained in Germany. This information comes from media reports, not from an investigators’ statement. No charges that are known to have been presented to the suspect in Poland so far; he is presumed innocent.
Romanian services said the network also planned other targets: state and private arms companies, industrial facilities, and centres where Ukrainian soldiers are trained. According to the SRI, recruits for such networks are often found on social media and paid for seemingly innocent tasks, such as observing or photographing facilities.
What happens next with the extradition
The EAW procedure means that a Polish court will decide on handing the man over to Bucharest. Typically, the detainee first appears before a court, which rules on pretrial detention for the duration of the extradition proceedings. No date for the hearing has been given.
What it means
The detention does not point to a threat to specific facilities in Poland – according to available information, the operation stems from a Romanian investigation, and Poland is acting as the executing state. However, it shows that people linked to sabotage networks may be present in Warsaw and its surroundings. We wrote about a similar case, in which men suspected of sabotage on behalf of a foreign intelligence service were detained in another EU country, when reporting on the arson of a Starlink station in Masovia. Polish services have detained dozens of people suspected of sabotage and espionage since 2022, AP recalls.
