The detention of a 27-year-old Pole by the Belarusian KGB caused a violent reaction in Warsaw and entered into a broader context of tensions between Poland and the government of Alexander Lukashenko. The government media in Minsk and the Russian TASS agency reported that a Polish citizen was captured in Lepel, Vitebsk Oblast, allegedly with secret papers concerning the upcoming Zapad-2025 military maneuvers.
According to authoritative Belarusian messages, the detainee had a copy of 8 top secret military documents, as well as various currencies and a SIM card, which he was given as a gift, as reported. Along with him, a citizen of Belarus was arrested to service as an informant and intermediary.
For the Polish authorities, what is expected to be evidence of spy activity for Minsk and Moscow is simply a clear provocation. The Ministry of abroad Affairs not only questions the legitimacy of the detention, but besides points to the instrumental usage of the case by the Belarusian services. Deputy Minister Marcin Bosacki defined the situation as "another anti-Polish provocation of the Lukashenko regime". According to him, the detention is related to the upcoming Zapad-2025 exercises, whose communicative and context are unambiguously anti-natowskie and directed against Poland. Thus, as he said, the fact that specified manoeuvres were carried out in the close vicinity of the Polish borders is already provocative, and stopping the Pole is an additional link in this spiral of tensions.
The substance takes on an additional symbolic burden due to the fact that the 27-year-old detainee is, according to the information available, a clergyman associated with the Carmelite order. In propaganda material published by the Belarusian portal News.by presenting even spiritual leaflets as expected evidence. For the Polish side it is simply a signal that the Belarusian services do not back down from attempts to discredit even clergymen, to make an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. Minister-Coordinator of peculiar Services, Jacek Dobrzyński, unequivocally rejected the anticipation that Polish peculiar Services would usage clergymen in intelligence activities. His words clearly indicate that the government considers the situation as a psychological-political operation, calculated to compromise Poland and make an external enemy.
In the context of increasingly tense Polish-Belarusian relations, this incidental may lead to further deterioration of diplomatic relations. Poland has long accused Belarus of destabilising activities, including conducting a hybrid war at the border, inspiring the migration crisis, and supporting Russian imperial policy in the region. In turn Minsk regularly accuses Poland of supporting interior enemies of the government and interfering in Belarusian matters. Stopping a Polish citizen at specified a time fits perfectly into the communicative of the Belarusian authorities about the threat from the West and the request to defend sovereignty.
The Zapad-2025 exercises to take place on 12–16 September are Russia's and Belarus' top military maneuvers this year. According to the estimates of the Lithuanian defence services, about 30,000 soldiers will participate, of which respective 1000 will be stationed in the territory of Belarus. The scale of these exercises and their location – close to the borders of NATO countries – are worrying not only in Warsaw, but besides in Vilnius, Riga or Tallinn. In this context, any situation that can be utilized to demonise Poland or NATO is being exploited by the Lukashenko government and its Russian ally.
The way the Belarusian media presents information raises doubts. Reports of alleged co-operation with Belarus, which was to supply him with secret information, and of monthly transfers that Poles were to promise him, are given without any hard evidence. Propaganda materials match staging more than a relation with a real investigation. Meanwhile, for the Belarusian regime, specified matters are a convenient excuse to show their vigilance and effectiveness, especially in the context of upcoming exercises and expanding global pressure.
From the Polish perspective, not only the diplomatic consequence is important, but besides the political consequence to this provocation. The Deputy Head of the Ministry of abroad Affairs announced that the Ministry of abroad Affairs would take appropriate steps in the coming hours or days. The scale and form of this reaction are inactive being determined, but given the gravity of the situation, the firm position of Warsaw can be expected. This may mean, among another things, the call of the Ambassador of Belarus, the issue of a diplomatic note, or action in the European Union and NATO.
Such incidents, though seemingly individual, are part of the long-term strategy of authoritarian regimes, which, through provocations and misinformation, search to destabilise democratic states. In the case of Belarus, all chance to undermine the credibility of Poland as a associate of NATO and the EU is treated as added value. The detention of young Poles can service Minsk as a tool for interior propaganda – presenting the West as an aggressor and justifying subsequent steps towards militarisation of the state.
From the point of view of the public in Poland, the substance is simply a substance of understandable emotion, especially as it concerns a national of our country who, according to all available information, had no connection with intelligence activities. Narration of the monk-spy sounds like a bad movie script, but in the reality of Belarusian propaganda finds its place. It is so crucial that Poland not only responds decisively at diplomatic level, but besides communicates clearly its own version of events on the global stage, without allowing a false image to be captured.
The full situation is another example of how easy autocratic regimes can usage citizens of another states as pawns in their political game. The detained Pole became a hostage to the geopolitical conflict, whose stake is not only the image of Poland, but besides the safety of the full region. The final course of the case will be a test not only for Polish diplomacy, but besides for the solidarity of Western countries towards attempts to intimidate, provoke and manipulate east countries.
