Poland detains Russian spy, says interior minister

WARSAW (Reuters) -Poland has detained another member of a Russian spy network, bringing the total number of people rounded up in an investigation to 15, the interior minister said on Monday.

A hub for Western military supplies to Ukraine, Poland says it has become a major target of Russian spies and it accuses Moscow of trying to destabilise it.

"The Internal Security Agency has detained another member of the spy network working for Russian intelligence," Mariusz Kaminski said in a post on Twitter.

"The suspect kept surveillance of military facilities and seaports. He was systematically paid by the Russians."

The Russian embassy in Warsaw did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Prosecutors said in a statement that the individual arrested was a Ukrainian citizen who had been in Poland since 2019 and that he could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.

He will be kept in pre-trial detention, prosecutors said.

In June, Poland detained a Russian professional ice-hockey player on spying charges. Russia said at the time it had demanded an explanation from Poland over its arrest of Russian citizens.

In March, Poland said it had broken up a Russian espionage network and detained nine people it said were preparing acts of sabotage and monitoring rail routes to Ukraine.

The following month Poland said it was introducing a 200-metre exclusion zone around its Swinoujscie Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal, citing concerns about Russian espionage.

Prosecutors said on Monday that further arrests as part of the investigation could not be ruled out.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Robert Birsel and Alex Richardson)