Russia Says It Has Arrested Two “Polish Spies” in Kaliningrad – Poland Calls It a Provocation

Updated 11 Nov 2026, 19:56 · First published 11 Nov 2026

Russia says it has arrested two people in its Kaliningrad region whom it accuses of spying for Poland. The announcement came on Poland’s National Independence Day, and a Polish official dismissed it as “yet another provocation”.

According to the Russian news agency Interfax, the FSB security service described the two as “agents of the Polish secret services” and said they had been collecting information about military sites in the region.

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What did Poland say?

A spokesperson for the Polish minister in charge of the special services declined to comment directly on the FSB’s statements. But Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for the minister-coordinator of the special services, wrote on X that, on National Independence Day, he saw them as “yet another provocation and an act of disinformation”.

Russia did not say what charges the two people face, and it did not give their names or nationalities.

Why Kaliningrad matters

Kaliningrad is a small Russian territory on the Baltic Sea, cut off from the rest of Russia and sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, both NATO members. It is heavily militarised and has long been a flashpoint between Russia and the West.

Poland’s Independence Day

The arrests were announced on 11 November, when Poland marks the anniversary of regaining its independence in 1918 after 123 years of partition. Polish communities around the world, including hundreds of thousands of Poles living in the UK, mark the day with services and celebrations.

It also comes at a time of heightened tension over espionage in Europe. In the UK on Tuesday, a US Army soldier was arrested near Gloucester on suspicion of spying for Russia.

Photo: yanishevska / Shutterstock (illustrative)