The Polish prime minister stated Thursday that a Russian plan intended to kill a Ukrainian-American citizen in Warsaw was successfully thwarted before execution. He added this marked the first instance where "someone on the order of Russia" attempted to attack a U.S. citizen within another NATO country's territory.
Western officials had previously issued warnings regarding an escalation by Russia in targeted killings following President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, noting that several plots across Europe had been disrupted. However, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described this particular incident as unprecedented.
Polish police reported in a statement that the suspect, allegedly recruited by Russia's secret services, was detained by Polish authorities on August 7 and will be held in custody for three months.
Tusk stated during a news conference that the American Ukrainian citizen "was uncomfortable for the Putin regime," though he offered no further details.
Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s minister overseeing intelligence services, confirmed that the operation was conducted in cooperation with U.S. services. He specified that the targeted victim was a U.S. citizen "of Ukrainian origin." Officials did not immediately release additional information.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The U.S. State Department acknowledged awareness of the reports but stated it possessed no further details.
Western nations suspect Russia is attempting to undermine allies of Ukraine.
Russia has a long history of being accused of targeting its adversaries abroad, including through the use of rare poisons. However, intelligence officials previously informed The Associated Press that Russia's security services have become more overt in their target selection, pursuing Russian activists and foreign supporters of Ukraine, as well as military defectors.
"We must assume that the Putin regime will try to eliminate people who are inconvenient for various reasons, in various places around the world," Tusk stated on Thursday. He emphasized that Poland and other nations must be prepared to counter such actions.
Western officials view this campaign as linked to Russia's wider efforts to undermine European countries supporting Ukraine. The AP has documented approximately 200 acts of sabotage, arson, and other disruptions across Europe since the war began, which officials have attributed to Russia. President Vladimir Putin told the AP in June that Russia is not conducting a sabotage campaign against Europe.
In 2006, British authorities accused Russia of involvement in the killing of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London using radioactive polonium. The U.K. also holds Russia responsible for the attempted killing of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 with the nerve agent Novichok.
German authorities reported that Russia organized the 2019 killing of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a former Chechen rebel commander who was shot in a Berlin park by Vadim Krasikov, a hitman later greeted by Putin after an exchange in a spy swap.
In June, a Russian artist critical of Putin was killed at close range near his home in eastern Poland. Tusk noted at the time that the killing of Robert Kuzovkov, who used the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, exhibited characteristics of a political assassination. He suggested Russia might be responsible but Polish officials have not formally attributed it to Moscow yet.
Last year, French officials disrupted a plot they believed was aimed at killing Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian exile protected by police and working to assist military defectors fleeing Putin's war. Lithuanian authorities also thwarted plots last year targeting a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist. German officials have similarly dismantled two plots: one targeting the head of a German weapons company supplying Ukraine, and another against a Ukrainian military official.
Polish authorities arrested an individual in 2024 in connection with what they described as a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That same year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain, with Russian operatives being the prime suspects.
A senior European intelligence official previously told the AP, "This campaign is not by accident or chance. There is political authorization."