Albert Zawada/PAP

Russia intentionally uses migrants to weaken Western countries through stimulated migration, a senior Polish security official has said.

Stanislaw Zaryn, the commissioner for information space security, said in the statement released on Friday that a hybrid Belarusian and Russian operation that uses migration to target Poland continues. 

“The attack on Poland that has been carried out since 2021 shows the scale of challenges and threats that the whole of Europe faces,” Zaryn wrote.

“The Russians intentionally use foreigners to weaken Western countries,” he continued. “The operation of destabilising Europe has been discussed on numerous occasions by Russian military experts and strategists. The assessment is unequivocal – stimulated migration is an element of hybrid war against the West.

“The Russian war doctrine assumes the use of active measures (another name for ‘non-military measures’ or hybrid methods) to attack the West,” Zaryn added. “In order to successfully neutralise these attacks, one needs to understand the nature of Russia’s activities.”