Russia may use disposable agents for sabotage in the Czech Republic: facilities providing aid to Ukraine under threat

The risk remains in the Czech Republic that Russia will use so-called one-time agents to carry out acts of sabotage—individuals recruited to conduct a single operation. If they are exposed, Russian entities deny any connection with such agents and do not intervene in their fate. Radio Prague reports this, citing data from the counterintelligence service—the Czech Security Information Service (BIS)—as reported by UNN.

Details

The threat of sabotage primarily concerns facilities connected with the production or distribution of aid to Ukraine. The Czech counterintelligence service BIS reported this in its report for 2025, which was published today.

None of last year's incidents in the Czech Republic that were investigated as possible acts of sabotage by Russia have so far been reliably confirmed as supporting those suspicions.

Czech counterintelligence reports that Russian entities regulate the intensity of sabotage attacks intended to exert pressure on European countries depending on how the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine and on the international political arena develops.

The number of acts of sabotage organized by Russia decreased in the first half of last year, but an increase was recorded again in the second half, BIS notes.

The counterintelligence service reports on one-time agents because, if such individuals are arrested, Russia disclaims responsibility for their actions and does not intervene in their subsequent fate in any way. "They are often inexperienced amateurs and, at the same time, people of low social status or with a criminal past. Their predominant motivation is the prospect of receiving financial compensation," BIS writes.

According to BIS, agents usually receive specific instructions from their coordinators only after they report which targets within their reach they are capable of targeting. "Thus, the risk of a sabotage attack against a specific facility depends more on the capabilities of individual agents than on an integrated plan of the Russian state authorities," the report emphasizes. However, BIS notes, this circumstance makes it more difficult to detect preparations for such attacks.

In 2025, a Czech court sentenced Colombian citizen Andrés Alfonso de la Hoz de la Cruz to eight years in prison for setting fire to three buses in the garages of Prague Public Transit Company. According to information obtained by the media, he had planned larger-scale actions, including setting fire to a cinema in a Prague shopping center.

In Poland, the Colombian was linked to two arson attacks on warehouses containing construction materials. Both the Polish special services and the Czech counterintelligence service BIS agree that de la Cruz was recruited by Russian intelligence.