Special Services

Strikes are targeted against towns that in recent weeks have started slowly coming back to normal – functioning of companies, services and cultural institutions have been restored. What is more important, more and more frequently refugees – who once had escaped to the Western Ukraine or EU/NATO countries, were coming back to those towns. The objective of current attacks is to terrorize and intimidate civilians but also to stop these changes that are advantageous to Ukraine. Russia wants to make it impossible to rebuild the country as far as infrastructure, economy and demography are concerned. This is particularly true for Kyiv – main symbolic rival of Moscow on the post-Soviet territory and in the orthodox world, and Kharkiv – the most important city of the left-bank Ukraine.

At the same time Russia continues to loot occupied Ukrainian territories. There are more and more reports that the grain stolen from warehouses in the south of Ukraine is directed to the Syrian regime and its allies. Illegal transactions on the international market cover also stolen steel and metallurgical products, coal, coke or scrap. Even machines and vehicles are taken away.

There are also confirmed reports that Moscow uses mercenary groups, also the infamous Wagner Group, in order to seize the most precious resources, including gold and diamonds.

Selling these resources enables Russia to finance its mercenaries in Ukraine, Syria, Libya and the Sahel countries.

In the weeks to come one may expect that Russia will continue to blackmail the West also through energy issues, food trade and illegal migration. These actions are meant to destabilize the north Africa and the Middle East and then provoke problems in the Balkans and countries of southern Europe. This activity will be accompanied by an increased risk of disinformation operations and cyberattacks.

Spokesman for Poland’s Minister-Special Services Coordinator