Paweł Supernak/PAP

Poland’s security services have broken up a spy network, Mariusz Blaszczak, the Polish defence minister, confirmed on Thursday.

The radio station RMF FM reported on Wednesday that the security services had cracked a spy network working for Russia, which was preparing possible sabotage attacks on railway lines.

“Allow me to announce the huge success achieved by the Internal Security Agency (ABW), as the entire spy network has been broken up,” Blaszczak, who is also a deputy prime minister, told Polish Radio One on Thursday.

“This is proof that the Polish services have been working effectively on behalf of security for Poland,” he said, adding “it was a group which had been collecting information for those who had attacked Ukraine.” “The threat was real.”

RMF FM reported that those arrested were foreigners from behind Poland’s eastern border and that they had been working for Russian secret services.

“ABW agents arrested them as they had learned that the group had installed cameras beside railway junctions and important transport routes to monitor rail traffic and transmit images to the internet,” the radio station reported.

According to RMF FM, the cameras had been installed along railway routes in the Podkarpackie province, south-eastern Poland, close to the Rzeszow-Jasionka airport, which is the main logistics hub delivering military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.