Polish prosecutors said the 18-year-old Ukrainian committed 47 offenses between November 2024 and August 2025, including preparing a drone attack targeting the Polish president’s car during an Aug. 15, 2025 military parade.
Authorities say Russian intelligence paid him to desecrate memorials to Polish victims of wartime massacres and stir hostility between Poles and Ukrainians; investigators say he was recruited online and paid in cryptocurrency.
The suspect was arrested before the parade, and Poland’s Internal Security Agency said the case exposed a broader Russian hybrid tactic of exploiting historical grievances to drive a wedge between Warsaw and Kyiv.
That warning lands as anti-Ukrainian sentiment has been rising in Poland and relations worsened in late June after President Karol Nawrocki stripped Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Poland’s top state honor over a UPA-linked military unit.