Poland says it thwarted Russian plot to kill an American citizen

A Russian plot to kill a Ukrainian-American citizen in Warsaw was thwarted by Poland before it could be carried out, the Polish prime minister said Thursday, marking the first time in decades that a Western leader has publicly accused Moscow of plotting to kill a U.S. citizen.

Western officials have previously warned that Russia has stepped up a campaign of targeted killings since President Vladimir Putin launched the 2022 invasion of Ukraine , saying they have disrupted several plots across Europe. But Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said this incident was unprecedented.

Tusk told journalists the suspect, who was allegedly recruited by Russia's secret services, had been arrested last Friday, Aug. 7.

"He was inconvenient from the point of view of the Putin regime, and at the last moment... we managed to prevent this execution," he added.

"This is the first situation of its kind in which someone, acting on Russian orders, decided to carry out an attack against an American citizen on the territory of another NATO country," he added.

It was the first time that "someone on the order of Russia" sought to attack an American citizen on the territory of another NATO country, Tusk said Thursday.

The American Ukrainian citizen "was uncomfortable for the Putin regime," Tusk said in a news conference. "We have to accept the assumption that the Putin regime will try to eliminate people who are inconvenient for various reasons."

The operation to disrupt the plot was carried out in cooperation with U.S. services, said Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland's minister overseeing intelligence services. He said the targeted victim was a U.S. citizen "of Ukrainian origin." Officials did not immediately provide further details.

The Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russia has long been accused of targeting its enemies abroad, including by using rare poisons . But intelligence officials previously told The Associated Press that Russia's security services are now more brazen in their choice of targets, going after Russian activists and foreign supporters of Ukraine as well as military defectors.

Western officials see the campaign as connected to Russia's broader efforts to undermine European countries that support Ukraine. The AP has mapped about 200 acts of sabotage, arson and other disruption across Europe since the start of the war that officials have linked to Russia. Putin said in May that Russia is not waging a sabotage campaign against Europe.

British authorities accused Russia of being behind the killing of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 with radioactive polonium and of attempting to kill former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 with the nerve agent Novichok.

German authorities also said Russia organized the 2019 killing of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili , a former Chechen rebel commander who was shot in a Berlin park by Vadim Krasikov, a hitman who was later greeted by Putin after he was exchanged in a spy swap.

In June, a Russian artist who was critical of Putin was shot and killed at close range near his home in eastern Poland.