Moscow – AFP

Belarusian authorities arrested a Polish man on espionage charges after finding a secret document related to joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises in his possession, local media reported on Thursday.

The Belarus 1 TV channel and the official news agency BelTA stated that the man was detained by the country’s security service, still known in Belarus by its Soviet-era name, the KGB, along with at least one Belarusian citizen in Lida in the north of the country.

He is identified as Grzegorz Gaul, born in Krakow in 1998.

A photocopy of a secret document concerning the joint military maneuvers “Zapad 2025” with Russia was found in his possession, according to the sources.

Relations between neighboring Poland and Belarus have reached their lowest point since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Warsaw is one of the European capitals supporting Kyiv, while Minsk is a key ally of Moscow.

Poland also accuses Belarus of orchestrating migrant flows from third countries to its borders as part of a hybrid operation it says aims to destabilize the European Union.

The two countries have also exchanged accusations of violating each other’s airspace in 2023.