Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) has arrested a 63-year-old Ukrainian citizen suspected of attempting to assassinate a representative of Ukraine’s arms industry in an alleged operation carried out on behalf of Russian intelligence services.
The case was disclosed by Polish authorities on Thursday (August 20), more than two weeks after the suspect, identified as Serhii P. under Polish privacy laws, was detained in Warsaw on August 5. According to the ABW, the alleged assassination attempt took place in Irpin, near Kyiv, where the suspect reportedly placed an improvised explosive device beneath a car used by the intended victim.
The device was designed to be detonated remotely using a mobile phone but failed to explode because of a technical malfunction, the agency said. Following the failed attack, Serhii P. allegedly fled Ukraine and entered Poland, where security officers later located and arrested him.
On August 6, Polish prosecutors charged him with attempted murder using explosives and with possessing explosives without the required authorization. A Warsaw court subsequently ordered him to remain in pretrial detention for three months. Prosecutors said he could face at least 15 years in prison or a life sentence if convicted.
The arrest was carried out in cooperation with Ukrainian security services, while the investigation is being conducted by the ABW’s Criminal Proceedings Department under the supervision of the Warsaw branch of Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office.
In a statement, the ABW said the case demonstrated that Russian intelligence services were conducting operations across national borders and using individuals moving between countries to carry them out. Poland has repeatedly accused Moscow of involvement in sabotage, espionage, cyberattacks and other hostile activities since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, while Russia has denied allegations of recruiting individuals for such operations.
The arrest follows other recent cases in Poland involving alleged Russian intelligence activities, including the detention earlier in August of a Russian citizen in Warsaw accused of being recruited to assassinate a Ukrainian-American citizen considered an opponent of the Kremlin. The investigation into Serhii P. remains ongoing.
Source: commonspace.eu with Kyiv Post (Kyiv), Reuters (London) and TVP World (Warsaw).
