Poland has foiled an alleged Russian intelligence plot to assassinate a US citizen in Warsaw, in a case that threatens to deepen fears across NATO that Moscow is expanding its covert campaign against the West.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Polish security services arrested a Russian national allegedly recruited by Russian intelligence to kill a man holding both American and Ukrainian passports.
“Thanks to the truly brilliant action of our services,” Tusk said, the attack was prevented “at the last minute”.
The Polish prime minister described the alleged target as someone “inconvenient to the Putin regime” and said the case marked the first known instance of Moscow allegedly ordering an attack against an American citizen on the territory of another NATO member.
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Poland’s security services did not immediately disclose further details of the suspect or the alleged plot.
The arrest comes against a backdrop of growing concern over Russian espionage, sabotage and assassination operations across Europe as the war in Ukraine enters a fifth year.
In June, Polish prosecutors said a Russian artist critical of President Vladimir Putin had been shot dead in an eastern Polish town. Authorities have not publicly established that the killing was ordered by Moscow.
Other alleged Russian operations have been uncovered across Europe. French authorities previously said they had disrupted a plot targeting Russian dissident Vladimir Osechkin, while German officials have announced investigations into alleged Russian plans targeting a defence executive whose company supplies Ukraine and a Ukrainian military official.
The most notorious British case remains the 2018 Salisbury poisoning, in which British authorities concluded that two Russian military intelligence officers used the nerve agent Novichok in an attempt to assassinate former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.
Western intelligence officials have increasingly warned that Moscow’s campaign extends beyond conventional espionage.
NATO governments have reported suspected sabotage targeting infrastructure, while countries bordering Russia and Belarus have hardened security around energy installations, transport networks and other critical assets.
Lithuanian officials have warned of the possibility of a staged or “false flag” attack involving drones, while Poland, Latvia and Estonia have raised concerns that Russia could use covert operations to test the alliance’s willingness to respond.
The Baltic states are particularly exposed. Lithuania has increased protection around critical infrastructure, while Latvia has strengthened security around energy facilities, dams and underground gas storage.
Russia has dismissed such warnings as alarmism. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has described claims of planned covert attacks as “scare stories” intended to justify hostility towards Moscow.
European governments are increasingly unwilling to take that argument at face value.
The Warsaw case, if confirmed, would represent a striking escalation: an alleged Russian operation targeting an American citizen not in the United States, but inside the territory of a NATO ally.
That raises a question extending well beyond Poland. If Moscow is prepared to use intelligence assets, proxies and covert violence inside allied territory, European governments must decide whether these incidents remain isolated criminal cases — or evidence of a broader confrontation already taking place beneath the threshold of open war.