In 2025–early 2026, European intelligence agencies recorded a sharp increase in attempts to recruit EU citizens to carry out sabotage operations on the territory of NATO and EU countries. According to estimates by the counterintelligence services of several countries, this involves a scheme using so-called “disposable” operatives — people who are recruited for relatively little money to carry out one or two actions, after which they are effectively discarded.
Key features of the current Russian scheme (according to intelligence reports from Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Estonia, and France as of January 2026):
Remuneration ranges from €3,000 to €15,000 per assignment.
Most perpetrators are men aged 18–45 with criminal records, drug addicts, chronic debtors, far-right radicals, or people in dire financial straits.
Main countries of recruitment: Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, France, Moldova, Serbia.
Assignments: arson attacks on military facilities and humanitarian aid warehouses for Ukraine, damage to railway infrastructure, attacks on logistics centers, attempts to blow up military equipment at training grounds.
Communication is mainly conducted via Telegram, often through intermediaries from third countries (Turkey, Serbia, UAE, Kazakhstan).
Performers are almost never told who the end customer is—they are sold the story of “working for a private company” or “revenge for Ukraine” (for the far right).
According to estimates by Poland’s ABW and Germany’s BfV, since the summer of 2025, the number of recruitment attempts has increased 4–7 times compared to 2023–2024. At the same time, the quality of training for operatives and the level of secrecy remain extremely low — most quickly come to the attention of the special services while still in the training stage.
European counterintelligence agencies call this tactic a “disposable strategy” — Moscow deliberately uses people who are expendable and easily replaceable.