Polish intelligence has arrested a Russian man suspected of planning the assassination of a man holding both Ukrainian and US citizenship, government sources said on Thursday.
The targeted person was an irritant to the ruling system of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Prime Minister Donald Tusk, talking of successful cooperation with US intelligence services.
“Thanks to lightning-fast action, we were able to pre-empt this execution,” Tusk said.
The arrest took place on August 7, Polish intelligence services coordinator Tomasz Siemoniak posted on X.
Acting on the instructions of a foreign intelligence service, the Russian national had allegedly been preparing to commit the assassination in Warsaw.
“This is the first case in which someone from Russia has planned an attack on a US citizen on the territory of a NATO country,” said Tusk.
Kremlin critic killed in June
In mid-June, the fatal shooting of a Kremlin-critical Russian artist living in exile in Poland made headlines. At the time, Tusk described it as a politically motivated murder. A suspect was arrested.
Poland, a member of the European Union and NATO, is a key political and military supporter of Ukraine, which is fighting to repel a full-scale Russian invasion for the fifth year.
Poland has also taken in almost a million refugees from neighbouring Ukraine. The government in Warsaw accuses the spy agencies of Russia and its ally Belarus of sending large numbers of operatives into the country.