(Adnkronos) – Warsaw denounces as a “provocation” the arrest yesterday by Belarusian authorities of a Polish citizen suspected by Minsk of “espionage”. Belarus has accused the man, identified as Grzegorz Gawel, born in Krakow in 1998, of being in possession of a classified document on the upcoming joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises, according to reports from media in the country close to Moscow. The Polish Foreign Ministry “considers this episode a provocation,” its spokesman Pawel Wronski said on X, announcing that Warsaw would take “all necessary diplomatic and legal measures” to assist the citizen arrested by the Belarusian authorities.
According to the Belarus 1 television channel and the state news agency Belta, the man was arrested by the KGB (the country’s security services, which have kept the Soviet name) along with at least one Belarusian citizen in Lepel, in the north of the country. A photocopy of a classified document concerning the Zapad-2025 joint military exercises with Russia was allegedly found in his possession.
Relations between Poland and Belarus have been at an all-time low since the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine in 2022. Warsaw is one of Kiev’s main European supporters, while Minsk is a key ally of Moscow. Poland also accuses Belarus of being behind the influx of migrants from third countries to its border, as part of a hybrid operation aimed at destabilizing the EU.
