Further details of foiled plan to assassinate Zelensky at Polish airport revealed

Poland and Ukraine have revealed further details of a foiled plan to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Polish airport of Rzeszów.

A Polish national was last month indicted on espionage charges in relation to the incident, which he is accused of seeking to carry out on behalf of Russia.

On Monday, Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), spoke with journalists about how his agency had foiled two assassination attempts against Zelensky, one in Kyiv itself and the other in Rzeszów.

The latter operation was planned by a Polish military veteran, who “was recruited decades ago and firmly believed in the Soviet cause”, said Malyuk, quoted by the UNIAN news agency.

The man, named by UNIAN only as Paweł K. in accordance with Polish privacy laws, had considered various options for assassinating the Ukrainian president, including using a drone or a sniper.

But the plan was uncovered by the SBU in cooperation with its Polish equivalent, the Internal Security Agency (ABW), who took Paweł K. into custody.

While Malyuk did not specify when the events in question took place, Poland's interior minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, clarified later on Monday that it was an incident publicly reported in April last year .

Siemoniak noted that the man in question had undertaken “preparatory actions for the assassination of the president of Ukraine…and tried to cooperate with the Russian [security] services.” He added that, last month, the man was indicted by Polish prosecutors on espionage charges.

Poland, and in particular Rzeszów, is the main hub for officials traveling in and out of Ukraine . Siemoniak noted that the Polish authorities “work closely with the Ukrainian [security] services in matters of ensuring the security of President Volodomyr Zelensky.”

Subsequently, Siemoniak's spokesman, Jacek Dobrzyński, confirmed that the man in question had been indicted for the crime of “declaring readiness to act for the benefit of a foreign intelligence service against the Republic of Poland”. It carries a potential prison sentence of up to eight years.

“The findings of the investigation indicate that Paweł K. declared readiness to act for the benefit of the Russian GRU [military intelligence agency],” wrote Dobrzyński. “His tasks were to include, among others, gathering information about Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport.”

“This was to help the Russian [security] services plan a possible assassination attempt on the life of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky,” he added, citing ABW findings.

Main image credit: Jakub Szymczuk/KPRP