U.S., UK special services using Poland for transporting fighters, weapons to Ukraine - Russian Foreign Intelligence Service

MOSCOW. March 4 (Interfax) - American and British special services are using Polish territory for transporting weapons and fighters to Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said on Friday.

"Information that the Russian SVR is receiving shows that special services of the United States and the United Kingdom have de facto turned the Polish territory into a 'logistical hub' over the past few weeks to use it for shipping weapons and transporting fighters, including from the Middle East, to Ukraine," the SVR said in a statement on its website.

"At the end of 2021, the Americans freed several dozens of ISIL [terrorist organization banned in Russia] terrorists among citizens of Russia and CIS countries from prisons of the Kurdish wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces illegal armed group," the SVR said.

"Said persons were sent to the al-Tanf base controlled by the U.S., where they underwent special training in sabotage and terrorist methods, with the focus on the Donbas region. They were trained to use antitank and man-portable air defense missile systems, multiple rocket launchers, unmanned combat aerial vehicles, and other types of modern weapons. Then the ISIL people were transported to a U.S. military base in northern Iraq, from where they were repositioned to Ukrainian territory," it said.

"With the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, most of these fighters have been killed," it said.

"However, the CIA and the U.S. Special Operations Command are continuing to form new 'ISIL echelons'. There are plans to transport them through Polish territory to be engaged in sabotage and terrorist activities in Ukraine," the SVR said.