Russian citizen faces spying charges in Poland after photographing railways

A Russian citizen was charged with espionage in Poland after he was caught taking photographs of the country’s railway infrastructure, police in Lower Silesia said Friday.

Authorities said officers patrolling after a football match in Świdnica, south-western Poland, stumbled upon the 55-year-old Russian national as he was taking photographs of passing trains at an unguarded railway crossing.

“Everything indicates that the photos he took could be used against the security of the state,” the regional police authority wrote in a press release.

Police found a large amount of evidence suggesting that the man took pictures of strategic infrastructure systematically. “There were photographs of various places and important communication facilities, not only in Poland,” Łukasz Dutkowiak, a spokesperson for the Lower Silesian police, told Radio Wrocław.

Prosecutors are now investigating “activities for foreign intelligence against the Republic of Poland,” the regional authority added.

Poland has faced multiple sabotage attacks against its military and railway infrastructure over the past year. Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused Ukrainian nationals of “cooperating with Russian services” after a November 2025 attack damaged a rail line close to the Polish-Ukrainian border.

Fires broke out at a drone-components plant in Skarżysko-Kamienna and an aircraft-parts facility in Lublin in late August. In September, a Starlink communications station was set on fire near Warsaw.

“Russia does not even have to cross our border,” Tusk said after the September attacks. “It is already waging a hybrid war against us using drones, acts of sabotage and disinformation on the internet.”

European officials have pointed to an escalation of sabotage attacks from Russia over the past few months, as President Vladimir Putin seeks to disrupt military support for Ukraine and raise the political cost of backing Kyiv.