August 13, 2026 / 12:52 PM EDT
/ CBS/AP
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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.
