Poland thwarts Russian plot to kill Ukrainian-American in Warsaw

Warsaw,UPDATED: Aug 13, 2026 23:16 IST

Poland has thwarted a Russian plan to kill a Ukrainian-American citizen in Warsaw before it could be carried out, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday. He described it as the first time that "someone on the order of Russia" had sought to attack a US citizen on the territory of another NATO country.

The suspect, who Polish authorities say was recruited by Russian secret services, was detained on August 7 and will remain in custody for three months, according to Warsaw police. The operation was carried out in cooperation with US services, while US officials said they were aware of the reports but had no further information.

Tusk said the American citizen of Ukrainian origin "was uncomfortable for the Putin regime", but did not give further details. Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland's minister overseeing intelligence services, said the intended target was a US citizen "of Ukrainian origin". Russian Foreign Ministry officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Western officials have warned that Russia has stepped up a campaign of targeted killings since President Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and say several plots have been disrupted across Europe. Tusk said this case was unprecedented. "We must assume that the Putin regime will try to eliminate people who are inconvenient for various reasons, in various places around the world," he said, adding that Poland and other countries must be ready to counter such actions.

Western officials believe the campaign is linked to broader Russian efforts to undermine European countries that support Ukraine. The Associated Press has mapped about 200 acts of sabotage, arson and other disruption across Europe since the start of the war that officials have linked to Russia. Putin told the AP in June that Russia is not waging a sabotage campaign against Europe.

Russia has long been accused of targeting opponents abroad, including with rare poisons. British authorities accused Russia of being behind the 2006 killing of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London with radioactive polonium. The UK has also blamed Russia for the 2018 attempted killing of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury with the nerve agent Novichok. German authorities said Russia organised the 2019 killing of former Chechen rebel commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in a Berlin park by Vadim Krasikov, a hitman later greeted by Putin after being exchanged in a spy swap.

In June, a Russian artist critical of Putin was shot dead at close range near his home in eastern Poland. At the time, Tusk said the killing of Robert Kuzovkov, known as Semyon Skrepetsky, had the hallmarks of a political assassination, though Polish officials have not attributed it to Moscow. Last year, French officials disrupted what they believed was a plot to kill Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian exile who helps military defectors flee Putin's war. Lithuanian officials also stopped one plot to kill a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist. German officials have similarly broken up two plots, one targeting the head of a German weapons company supplying Ukraine and another against a Ukrainian military official.

Polish authorities also arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain, with Russian operatives seen as the main suspects. Summing up the wider pattern, a senior European intelligence official had earlier told the AP: "This campaign is not by accident or chance. There is political authorisation."

With PTI Inputs

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