Poland says it thwarted a Russian plot to kill an American citizen in
Warsaw
[August 14, 2026]
By CLAUDIA CIOBANU and EMMA BURROWS
WARSAW (AP) — A Russian plan to kill a Ukrainian American citizen in
Warsaw was thwarted by Poland before it could be carried out, the Polish
prime minister said Thursday, adding it was the first time that “someone
on the order of Russia” sought to attack a U.S. citizen on the territory
of another NATO country.
Western officials have previously warned that Russia stepped up a
campaign of targeted killings since President Vladimir Putin’s 2022
invasion of Ukraine, saying they have disrupted several plots across
Europe. But Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said this incident was
unprecedented.
The suspect, who was allegedly recruited by Russia's secret services,
was detained by Polish authorities on Aug. 7. He will be held in custody
for three months, the Warsaw police said in a statement.
The American Ukrainian citizen “was uncomfortable for the Putin regime,”
Tusk said in a news conference, without elaborating.
The operation was carried out in cooperation with U.S. services, said
Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s minister overseeing intelligence services. He
said the targeted victim was a U.S. citizen “of Ukrainian origin.”
Officials did not immediately provide further details.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
The U.S. State Department said it was aware of the reports but said it
had no additional information.
Western countries believe Russia seeks to undermine Ukraine's allies
Russia has long been accused of targeting its enemies abroad, including
by using rare poisons. But intelligence officials previously told The
Associated Press that Russia’s security services are now more brazen in
their choice of targets, going after 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 said on Thursday. He said that Poland and others must be
prepared to counter such actions.
Western officials see the campaign as connected to Russia’s broader
efforts to undermine European countries that support Ukraine. The AP has
mapped about 200 acts of sabotage, arson and other disruption across
Europe since the start of the war that officials have linked to Russia.
President Vladimir Putin told the AP in June that Russia is not waging a
sabotage campaign against Europe.
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Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrives for the EU summit in
Brussels, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
In 2006, British authorities accused Russia of being behind the
killing of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London with
radioactive polonium. The U.K. also blames Russia for the attempted
killing of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei
Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 with the nerve agent Novichok.
German authorities said 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 who was later
greeted by Putin after he was exchanged in a spy swap.
In June, a Russian artist who was critical of Putin was shot and
killed at close range near his home in eastern Poland. Tusk said at
the time that the killing of Robert Kuzovkov, known by the pseudonym
Semyon Skrepetsky, had the hallmarks of a political assassination.
He suggested it was possible Russia was behind it but Polish
officials have not yet attributed it to Moscow.
Last year French officials disrupted a plot which they believe was
aimed at killing Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian exile who lives under
police protection and works to help military defectors flee Putin’s
war. Lithuanian officials also disrupted a plot last year to kill a
Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian
activist. Officials in Germany have similarly broken up two plots:
one to target the head of a German weapons company supplying
Ukraine, the other against a Ukrainian military official.
Polish authorities arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a
plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That
year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain —
with Russian operatives the prime suspects.
“This campaign is not by accident or chance,” a senior European
intelligence official previously told the AP. “There is political
authorization.”
___
Burrows reported from London. Stefanie Dazio in Berlin and Matthew
Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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