“There is no agreement with Ukraine, and the Polish state has not developed systemic cooperation at the level of the judiciary, prosecutors or services that would allow the creation of red alerts or lists of undesirable or convicted individuals. Today we talk about saboteurs, but for years convicts for other crimes have entered and continue to enter, and we have no system that would allow us to verify these individuals,” said today Tomasz Grodecki, a journalist at Niezalezna.pl, referring to Ukrainian convicts crossing the Polish border.
Today, the National Prosecutor’s Office (PK) submitted to the court a request to issue a European Arrest Warrant for Jewhenij Ivanov and Oleksandr Kononov, suspected of carrying out an act of sabotage on railway infrastructure in Poland.
Both entered Poland from Belarus in the autumn of this year. After carrying out the railway sabotage, both men were to leave Polish territory through border crossings in Terespol.
On Their Own Passports
The spokesperson of the National Prosecutor’s Office (PK), prosecutor Przemysław Nowak, said recently during a press conference that both men entered and left Poland based on their genuine documents, using their real data, and did so by a scheduled bus. This was confirmed today on TVN24 by Marcin Kierwiński, Minister of the Interior and Administration.
Earlier, Niezalezna.pl, as the first media outlet in Poland, revealed who Jewhenij Ivanov, wanted by the services, really is.
Niezalezna.pl obtained information that Ivanov, residing in Belgorod, Russia, was recruited by Russian services at the beginning of 2024. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), he coordinated an attempted sabotage operation at a factory producing drones for the Ukrainian army. Ivanov was allegedly handled by Yuriy Syzov, a GRU officer. To carry out the sabotage in the Ukrainian plant, Syzov and Ivanov used a former employee of the company, Jewhen Borysenko. Ukrainian services foiled the sabotage and detained Borysenko, who exposed his handlers. Ivanov was charged with high treason, participation in sabotage, attempted murder and transferring explosive materials. In May 2025, he was convicted in absentia by a court in Lviv.
“Our journalists knew that there are websites where such things can be checked. The first and last name of the guy who entered Poland on such data was posted on websites showing Russian saboteurs conducting similar operations in Ukraine. If this information was available to our journalists, then how on earth did Polish services at the border, checking a Ukrainian citizen entering from Belarus, which is waging war against Ukraine, into Poland, not verify in all open sources who this person is,” said Michał Rachoń on TV Republika.
“Who Was Supposed to Enter Them?”
Marcin Kierwiński also addressed this issue today during an interview on TVN24.
“We are talking to the Ukrainian side to ensure that such a situation never happens again, that someone convicted there for acts of sabotage is not marked in international systems as a non-wanted person. If someone is convicted and not in prison, they should be marked in the border systems of all EU member states. (…) The Ukrainian side, due to the ongoing war, issues many such in absentia judgments. If European services do not have this information, such a person can move freely across borders. We are talking to the Ukrainian side because we have an agreement on mutual police cooperation to sign, and we will include specific legal mechanisms to ensure such a situation never repeats,” said the Minister of the Interior and Administration.
“What do you mean other countries did not enter this person? We didn’t know” You didn’t know, and how could you know, when Krzysztof Dusza heads the Military Counterintelligence Service (SKW). Journalists from niezalezna.pl knew. The most dramatic part is that Ukraine has been warning Poland about this and similar issues for a long time, pointing out that such actions are being carried out against the Polish state. And the Minister of the Interior, who says that he “didn’t know” because no one entered these individuals. And who was supposed to enter them? The Polish state, which is a frontline state, and from this arise threats that should be neutralized by the Polish state by creating, among other things, databases of people who should not enter Poland,” Rachoń added.
No Agreement Exists
Moreover, on 19 November, Tomasz Grodecki reported on our website that Poland does not have an information exchange system with Ukraine.
Poland does not verify whether individuals convicted in Ukraine or Belarus are crossing our border, even in cases involving serious crimes such as sabotage. To this day, there is no information exchange system between the Polish and Ukrainian judicial systems concerning convicted persons, the author pointed out.
In Michał Rachoń’s programme, Grodecki added that throughout nearly four years of war in Ukraine, Poland has failed to develop any such system.
“There is no agreement, and the Polish state has not developed systemic cooperation at the level of the judiciary, prosecutors or services that would allow the creation of red alerts or lists of undesirable or convicted individuals. Today we talk about saboteurs, but for years convicts for other crimes have been entering and continue to enter, and we have no system that would allow us to verify them,” our journalist said.
Kierwiński, in today’s interview, pointed to ongoing talks regarding an agreement on mutual cooperation. The matter was also raised in Rachoń’s programme by Mariusz Błaszczak, former Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister, now head of the Law and Justice parliamentary club.
“We are back to what it was like before 2015. Poland is a cardboard state, as Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, the minister from the PO-PSL coalition, said at the time. They are dismantling state institutions. The Military Counterintelligence Service (SKW) is responsible for counterintelligence protection, and the head of the SKW is employed in three positions. He has a post at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister (KPRM), he was supposed to deal with Russian influence, which cost 3 million PLN, he has a post at the War Studies Academy, and he is the head of the SKW,” he assessed.