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By Shane Croucher
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was the target of an assassination plot to be carried out by a Polish pensioner who had first been recruited by the Soviet Union decades ago, the head of the country's internal security agency said.
Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk, head of Ukraine's SBU, the main internal security agency of the Ukrainian government, detailed the alleged plot in a closed briefing with Ukrainian media. The suspect had now been indicted in Poland.
Malyuk said the Polish man was activated by Russia with a plan to take out Zelensky at Poland's Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport using either a first-person view drone or a sniper rifle, TSN reported.
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The would-be assassin was a firm believer in Soviet ideology, RBC reported, and maintained his beliefs for years. But the plot was foiled by a joint effort between the SBU and the Polish internal security service (ABW).
The ABW told Newsweek the plot described by Malyuk related to the April 2024 arrest of a man identified as Paweł K.
Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak referred to the case in a post on X on Monday, and said his country was working closely with Ukrainian services to ensure the security of Zelensky. He confirmed that the Polish court was sent an indictment in May 2025.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian government's press service for comment.
Zelensky has been the target of many foiled assassination plots since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In 2023, Zelensky said he had lost track of how many times there had been attempts on his life.
In May 2024, Ukraine said it had detained two Ukrainian colonels from its state security department who had leaked information to Russia and were plotting to kill Zelensky and other senior officials.
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Ukraine War Latest
Russian drones and missiles killed at least 14 civilians and injured several dozen others in Ukraine in overnight attacks, local officials said Monday, with nine deaths reported in the capital, Kyiv, where an apartment building partially collapsed.
The attacks came as Zelensky began a visit to the United Kingdom, where he met privately with King Charles III.
Russia-Ukraine peace talks are set to resume soon in Istanbul, as the war wages on in the background with no end in sight.
Russia fired 352 drones and decoys overnight, as well as 11 ballistic missiles and five cruise missiles, Ukraine's air force said. Air defenses intercepted or jammed 339 drones and 15 missiles before they could reach their targets, a statement said.
A Russian ballistic missile strike destroyed a high school later in the day in Ukraine's southern Odesa region, killing two staff, authorities said. No children were on the premises because of the summer vacation, said Zelensky, who described the strike as "absolutely insane."
The strikes came nearly a week after a Russian attack killed 28 people in Kyiv, 23 of them in a residential building that collapsed after a direct hit from a missile.
Russia's Summer Push
Russian forces have been trying to drive deeper into Ukraine as part of a summer push along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, though the Institute for the Study of War said they have failed to make significant inroads.
"Russian forces are largely relying on poorly trained infantry to make gains in the face of Ukraine's drone-based defense," the Washington-based think tank said late Sunday.
Zelensky said preliminary data indicated that Russian forces used North Korean missiles in the Kyiv strike. He described Russia, North Korea and Iran, which has provided drones to Russia, as a "coalition of murderers."
President Donald Trump has been trying to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. But he has been unable to bring about a ceasefire as soon as he had hoped, expressing frustration with both sides.
Now, Trump's focus has turned to the Middle East after he ordered strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, escalating a conflict between Israel and Iran in a move that risks plunging the region into all-out war.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
Update, 6/24/25, 4:50 a.m. ET: This article was updated with information from the ABW and Tomasz Siemoniak.
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