MOSCOW: Russia’s security services have arrested two Polish citizens accused of spying for Warsaw in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland, Russian officials said Wednesday.

The FSB security services alleged the pair were part of Poland’s internal security agency and had been collecting information on the “servicemen and facilities of the Russian Ministry of Defense.”

It did not disclose their identities.

Both men are Polish citizens, the Kaliningrad Regional Court later said on Telegram.

Diplomatic ties between Russia and Poland have been historically strained and frayed further over the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine, launched in 2022, as Warsaw supports Kyiv politically and with military aid.

Criminal cases have been opened against the pair with the two remanded in custody, the FSB said in a statement.

It added that “official warnings have also been issued to seven Polish citizens and three Russian citizens who had contacts with the Polish special services.”

“Entry into our country has been barred for the aforementioned citizens of the Republic of Poland for an extended period,” the statement added.

Russia regularly announces arrests for alleged collaboration with Ukraine and its allies.

Dozens of Westerners have been arrested on charges of espionage, criticizing the Russian military or committing minor offenses.

Following the arrests, Polish special services spokesman Jacek Dobrzynski on Wednesday warned Poles on X not “to repeat this hostile narrative and not to play into Russian propaganda.”

“On National Independence Day, I regard this in particular as yet another provocation and piece of disinformation,” Dobrzynski said.

Last week Poland said it had arrested six people suspected of spying for Moscow and supplying its military.

Polish territory is the main transit route for Western military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

The two countries have also engaged in tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats and the closing of diplomatic missions.

Last year, Russia closed Poland’s consulate in Kaliningrad after Warsaw earlier shuttered the Russian consulate in the southern city of Krakow.

Poland’s move came after the authorities accused Moscow of orchestrating a fire that destroyed a Warsaw shopping center.

In 2024, Poland imposed restrictions on the movements of Russian diplomats on its soil, due to Moscow’s involvement in what it called a “hybrid war.”