A man suspected of helping Russian intelligence prepare a possible attack against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was arrested in Poland, Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors announced this Thursday, April 18.
The Polish national, identified only as Pawel K., was tasked with “collecting and providing information to the military intelligence services of the Russian Federation […]in particular helping the Russian secret services to plan a possible assassination attempt on a foreign head of state, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky”, according to a press release from the Polish prosecutor’s office.
Pawel K. said he was “ready to act on behalf of the military intelligence services of the Russian Federation and established contacts with citizens of the Russian Federation directly involved in the war in Ukraine,” he said. he adds. The notification of Pawel K.’s activities was transmitted to Warsaw by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, subsequently making it possible to obtain “essential evidence”. He was placed in pre-trial detention, announced the Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors.
Russia’s ‘persistent threat’
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Andriï Kostine, the man arrested was in particular responsible for “collecting and transmitting to the aggressor state information on the security of the Rzeszów-Jasionka airport”, in the south-east of the Poland, through which the Ukrainian head of state often passes during his foreign trips, officials from other countries going to Ukraine and aid convoys to this country.
“This affair underlines the persistent threat that Russia poses not only to Ukraine and Ukrainians, but also to the entire free world,” said Andriï Kostin on X. He accused Kremlin of organizing and carrying out “sabotage operations on the territory of other sovereign states”, such as in Germany, where two men suspected of transmitting information to Kremlin intelligence were arrested today. According to the Polish prosecutor’s office, the coordinated operation of the Polish and Ukrainian services made it possible to “obtain evidence also outside Poland”.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski congratulated the Polish prosecutor’s office and special services. “Good cooperation with fraternal Ukraine,” he wrote on X, while Poland has been among Ukraine’s strongest supporters since the launch of the Russian offensive in February 2022.