The suspect was caught in Warsaw after fleeing Ukraine, where an explosive device planted beneath his target’s car failed to go off. .Polish security services have detained a Ukrainian man over an alleged Russian-backed car-bomb plot targeting a representative of Ukraine’s arms industry. The 63-year-old, identified only as Serhiy P. in line with Polish privacy laws, is accused of trying to kill a representative of Ukraine’s arms industry in Irpin, near Kyiv. Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) disclosed the case on Thursday, more than two weeks after the suspect was detained in Warsaw on August 5. According to the agency, Serhiy P. planted an improvised explosive device under a car used by the intended victim. The device was supposed to be detonated remotely using a mobile phone but failed to explode because of a malfunction. Polish authorities said the suspect had allegedly been acting on the orders of Russian intelligence services. Poland, a NATO member bordering Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, has accused Moscow of carrying out sabotage, espionage, cyberattacks and other hostile operations on its territory since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Tracked down in Warsaw After the failed attack, the suspect fled to Poland, where ABW officers tracked him down and detained him in Warsaw. The arrest was carried out as part of ongoing cooperation between the ABW and Ukrainian security services. The agency said the operation prevented the suspect from using Poland as a place to hide and as a route for further escape. Serhiy P. was charged on August 6 with attempted murder using explosives and possession of explosives without the required permit. A Warsaw court ordered him to be held in pretrial detention for three months the following day. The ABW said the case showed that Russian intelligence services were conducting operations across national borders and using people moving between countries to carry them out. “One of the ABW’s key tasks is to prevent Polish territory from being used for such activities,” the agency said. The investigation is ongoing. Growing security concerns The case comes amid a series of arrests in Poland linked to alleged Russian intelligence operations. Earlier this month, Polish services detained a Russian citizen in Warsaw who was allegedly tasked with killing a dual US-Ukrainian citizen considered “inconvenient” to Moscow. Meanwhile, in June, Russian artist and Kremlin critic Robert Kuzovkov, better known by his pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, was shot dead in broad daylight near his home in Biała Podlaska, eastern Poland. A 36-year-old man carrying a Georgian passport was later charged with Skrepetsky’s murder. Polish officials have not established that Russia was behind the killing.
