Polish PM vows 'no leniency’ for Russian spies
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared on Friday that „there will be no leniency” for Russian spies in his country, vowing to „root out every act of betrayal and attempt at destabilization.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara
The Polish Public Prosecutor’s Office announced a day earlier that a man suspected of having ties to Russia’s military intelligence service had been detained and charged in Poland.
According to investigators, the suspect, named only as Paweł K., was ready to work for the Russian military intelligence and provide it with information that could help carry out an attempt on the life of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
A spokeswoman for Polish prosecutors, Anna Adamiak, said that investigators believe the detained man had been gathering information about the security of Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland at the behest of the Russian military intelligence service.
In a separate spying case, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda announced on Friday that two people had been detained in Poland on suspicion of attacking Leonid Volkov, a top aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
In an X post, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Friday: „The would-be assassin of President Zelensky, a Pole acting at the behest of Russian security services, was arrested two days ago. A Belarusian man working for the Russians who hired two Poles to assassinate Navalny’s associate has also been detained.”
Tusk added: „The two attackers are also in custody. They are linked to the 'ultras’ sports fan groups … There will be no leniency for collaborators with Russian intelligence services.”
„We will root out every act of betrayal and attempt at destabilization,” he vowed.
Volkov, an exiled Navalny aide, was attacked with a hammer on March 12 outside his home in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
Lithuania’s counterintelligence said at the time that the attack was the work of Russian security services, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda on Friday thanked Poland’s authorities and law enforcement for the detentions and said the two suspects would be transferred to Lithuania, Reuters reported.
Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in an Arctic penal colony in February.
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Source: IAR, PAP, Reuters
