Poland to try suspect in alleged Russian plot to assassinate Zelenskiy

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo of a Polish police officer (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

WARSAW  -  Polish authorities have indicted a man charged with planning to help Russian foreign intelligence services prepare a possible attempt to assassinate Ukraine's president, prosecutors said on Tuesday. 

The man, identified as Pawel K., was arrested in April 2024 after cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors, and faces up to eight years in prison. 

According to prosecutors, he had declared his readiness to act for the military intelligence of the Russian Federation and established contacts with Russians who were directly involved in the war in Ukraine. 

"The activities were to help, among other things, in the planning by the Russian special services of a possible assassination attempt on the life of ... the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy," the prosecution said in a statement.

Pawel K.'s tasks included collecting and providing information on security at the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland, prosecutors said. 

Poland, a hub for Western military supplies to Ukraine, says it has become a major target of Russian spies, accusing Moscow and its ally Belarus of trying to destabilise it - accusations which the Kremlin has repeatedly denied. 

 (Reporting by Anna Koper; Editing by Aidan Lewis)