Prosecutors say Polish nationwide is suspected of supplying data to Russian navy intelligence.
A person has been arrested in Poland on allegations of being able to spy on behalf of Russia’s navy intelligence in an alleged plot to assassinate Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Polish prosecutors have mentioned.
The Polish nationwide, recognized as Pawel Ok, is suspected of supplying data to Russian navy intelligence and “serving to the Russian particular forces to plan a doable assassination try” towards Zelenskyy, prosecutors mentioned in a press release on Thursday.
It mentioned the suspect had said he was “able to act on behalf of the navy intelligence companies of the Russian Federation and established contact with Russian residents straight concerned within the battle in Ukraine”.
If convicted, the person might withstand eight years in jail, the assertion mentioned.
Ukrainian prosecutors had knowledgeable Poland in regards to the actions, which had enabled them to collect “important proof” towards the suspect, the assertion added.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor-Normal Andriy Kostin mentioned the suspect had been tasked with “gathering and transmitting to the aggressor state details about safety at Rzeszow-Jasionka airport” in southeastern Poland.
The airport is below the management of United States troops. Zelenskyy steadily passes by the airport on his journeys overseas. Additionally it is utilized by international officers and support convoys heading to Ukraine.
“This case underscores the persistent menace Russia poses not solely to Ukraine and Ukrainians however to the whole free world,” Kostin wrote on X, previously Twitter.
“The Kremlin’s prison regime… organises and carries out sabotage operations on the territory of different sovereign states,” he added.
Polish International Minister Radoslaw Sikorski recommended the work of his nation’s particular companies and prosecutors within the operation in addition to cooperation with neighbouring Ukraine.
Warsaw has been certainly one of Kyiv’s staunchest backers because the Russian invasion in February 2022, though ties have frayed just lately in a dispute over agricultural imports.