Poland convicts man who scouted Zelenskyy’s route for Russian assassins

A Polish court has convicted a man whose espionage activities may have been linked to a potential Zelenskyy assassination plot in Poland. The Zamość District Court sentenced 50-year-old Paweł K. to three and a half years in prison for spying for Russian intelligence and illegal weapons possession.

The military pensioner from Hrubieszów had offered to pass security information about Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport to Russian military intelligence. According to Polish authorities, disclosure of this information "could have constituted assistance in planning an attack on the life of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy."

Zelenskyy frequently uses Rzeszów-Jasionka as his gateway to the West. The airport serves as NATO's primary logistics hub for military aid flowing into Ukraine. Leaders and politicians use it when traveling in and out of the war zone.

What Polish authorities say about the case

According to Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for Poland's intelligence services coordinator, Paweł K. "expressed his willingness to join the structures of Russian military intelligence and carry out intelligence tasks."

These tasks "were to consist...of passing information regarding the security of the Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport," Dobrzyński stated. The man also "expressed readiness to join a sabotage group referred to as the Wagner Group as well as a military unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate" of Russia's armed forces.

The court found Paweł K. guilty under Article 130 § 3 of Poland's Penal Code (espionage) and Article 263 § 2 (illegal possession of firearms and ammunition).

Ukrainian intelligence claims about assassination methods

Former SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk offered additional details last year, telling journalists that the man had been recruited by Russian special services decades earlier. According to Maliuk, he was a military pensioner who "deeply believed in the Soviet ideology," later activated by Moscow.

Maliuk claimed the plan envisioned killing Ukraine's president with "either an FPV drone or a sniper system" at the airport. These claims come from Ukrainian sources and were not part of the Polish court's findings.

A pattern of Russian operations targeting Ukraine's leadership

The ruling fits a broader pattern. In May 2024, Ukraine's SBU detained two colonels from Ukraine's State Guard who were allegedly plotting to kidnap and kill Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy has reportedly survived multiple assassination attempts since February 2022. In the invasion's first weeks, Ukrainian officials said forces eliminated Chechen hit squads sent to Kyiv with orders to kill the president—aided by FSB sources opposed to the war.

Poland itself has become a target of Russia's hybrid operations. In November 2025, Russian-directed operatives detonated explosives on railway lines southeast of Warsaw—the same corridor that moves Western weapons to Ukraine. Prime Minister Donald Tusk called it "one of Poland's most serious security challenges" since the full-scale invasion began.