Poland’s National Prosecutor claimed that a Polish citizen was detained in cooperation with the Ukrainian secret police on suspicion of “reporting his readiness to act for foreign intelligence” against his homeland. According to their official statement, the individual “established contacts with citizens of the Russian Federation directly involved in the war in Ukraine” and was tasked with providing information on the security of the Rzeszow Airport, which the state claimed could have been used to kill Zelensky.
This case isn’t as clear-cut as the media has made it seem if one reads between the lines. For starters, the National Prosecutor’s statement makes it appear like this person was the one that approached what they believed to be representatives of the Russian military and intelligence community, not vice-versa. Although it’s claimed that this wannabe agent successfully made contact with them and was then given specific tasks, the involvement of the Ukrainian secret police raises questions about all of this.
While there’s a chance that they might have intercepted secret communications between the now-detained Polish citizen and what are presented as his Russian-based handlers, it also can’t be ruled out that they set the entire thing up. To elaborate, some pro-Kiev Ukrainians speak Russian as a native language, which enables them to easily impersonate representatives of the Russian military and intelligence community after some basic training to learn their lingo.
They might therefore have been running certain Telegram channels that post pro-Russian content but are really run by the Ukrainian secret police with the intent of entrapping those naïve members of their audience who might reach out to them asking how they can help that country’s cause. In this case, that Pole might have messaged someone from one of those channels, after which they were given tasks by a person who they wrongly assumed was a representative of Russia’s military or intelligence community.
That would account for why they were reportedly told to provide information about Rzeszow Airport’s security for the possible purpose of assassinating Zelensky. The reason why this is so odd is because Russia never made an attempt to take Zelensky out during his many visits to the front lines. It’s therefore extremely unlikely that the first time that they’d try to do this would be when he’s on NATO soil and Russia’s assassination of him there could spark World War III due to it being an attack on Poland.
The Ukrainian secret police have a political interest in fearmongering about the aforementioned scenario, however, which is yet another argument in favor of the theory that this case isn’t as clear-cut as it seems. Moreover, if they weren’t involved in a significant capacity, then the National Prosecutor wouldn’t have applauded their role in its official statement. Quite clearly, they weren’t just passive bystanders who simply passed along information, but active participants in this operation.
Putting the pieces together, the argument can compellingly be made that Poland’s latest Russian spy scandal is probably a case of Ukrainian entrapment. That country’s secret police impersonated members of the Russian military and intelligence community, likely on pro-Russian Telegram channels, with the intent of naïve followers reaching out to them asking how they can help that country’s cause. That Pole who presumably messaged them was then set up to create the latest anti-Russian media sensation.
