A Polish court will try a man accused of gathering information about Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport that could have helped Russian intelligence plan an assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The hearing for Pawel K. is set to begin November 25 at the District Court in the city of Zamosc, in the Lublin Voivodeship, the Polish outlet Onet reports.
Poland’s Internal Security Agency detained the suspect on April 17, 2024, in Lublin Voivodeship. During a search, authorities found ammunition he allegedly stored illegally, and he was taken into custody.
Investigators say the defendant agreed to act on behalf of Russian special services, including Russia’s military intelligence, and maintained contacts with Russians allegedly directly involved in the war against Ukraine.
One of the tasks he worked on, prosecutors say, was collecting information about Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, including its security systems, to pass on to Russian handlers.
“This information could have been used by Russian intelligence services to prepare an assassination attempt on the life of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky,” Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office said.
Prosecutors also said they received information about the alleged crime from Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General.
Proceedings in the case are scheduled to start November 25. According to a spokesperson for the District Court in Zamosc, there will first be a technical session, followed by the initial hearing.
Notably, the indictment was forwarded to the District Court in Warsaw on May 20.
On June 23, the outlet Glavkom, citing Ukraine’s Security Service chief Vasyl Maliuk, reported that a pensioner in Poland wanted to kill Zelensky.
Also in June, the SBU press service said it had exposed FSB agents in Kyiv who were preparing a second assassination attempt on journalist Dmytro Gordon.
