A Polish court has sentenced a man to more than three years in prison after finding he offered to spy for Russia and pass sensitive security information that officials say could have been used in a potential assassination plot against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The 50-year-old man, identified as Paweł K. under Polish privacy laws, was sentenced to three years and six months by a district court in the southeastern city of Zamość, Polish security officials confirmed on Tuesday.
According to Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesperson for the minister coordinating Poland’s security and intelligence services, Paweł K. “expressed readiness” to cooperate with Russian military intelligence structures and carry out espionage tasks on Moscow’s behalf.
Among those tasks, Dobrzyński said, was the collection and transmission of information related to Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport, a critical logistics hub for Western military aid to Ukraine.
“Disclosure of this information could have constituted assistance in planning an assassination on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,” Dobrzyński said in a social media post.
The airport, located roughly 75 kilometers (46 miles) from the Polish-Ukrainian border, has played a central role in supplying Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion and has previously been used by Zelensky during official visits.
Poland’s ABW domestic counterintelligence agency, which investigated the case, said the verdict was issued on Jan. 29. The agency added that Paweł K.’s activities took place between December 2022 and February 2023.
Investigators also found that the man had expressed a willingness to join the Wagner Group, the notorious Russian paramilitary organization, as well as a military unit linked to Russia’s foreign intelligence service, according to Dobrzyński.
Paweł K. was living in the southeastern Polish town of Hrubieszów at the time of the offenses, the ABW said.
Poland, a key NATO ally and one of Ukraine’s strongest backers, has repeatedly warned of intensified Russian intelligence activity on its territory since the start of the war.