A man in his 60s has been detained in Lower Silesia on suspicion of plotting an attack on Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. Warsaw calls the threat "deadly serious".
Published 12 October 2026 · 18:00 GMT
Polish police have detained a man in his 60s in the southwestern region of Lower Silesia on suspicion of plotting an assassination attempt against Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the interior ministry announced on Sunday. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said security services tracked the suspect down through a detailed analysis of content posted online, describing him as active in extremist groups that trade in hateful language and calls for violence. The case began when the State Protection Service, which guards senior officials, forwarded police an email describing a potential attack. Officials say they are treating the matter as "deadly serious", with what they call a strong likelihood the threats could have been carried out.
Polish police have detained a man in his 60s in the southwestern region of Lower Silesia on suspicion of plotting an attack on Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the interior ministry announced on Sunday. The arrest followed an emergency Sunday-morning meeting of Poland's security apparatus, convened after the State Protection Service flagged what officials described as a credible, actionable threat against the country's two most senior civilian leaders.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński, who announced the detention in interviews with Polish media, said security services had tracked the man down through "a thorough analysis of content posted online". Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for the minister coordinating the special services, told reporters that authorities were treating the matter as "deadly serious", adding that there was "a strong likelihood" the threats could have been carried out. The suspect, identified so far only as a Polish national in his 60s, was detained on Sunday afternoon — Kierwiński himself announced the detention on X, writing that the man who had "threatened and planned an attack" on Tusk was in custody; his apartment has been searched and his contacts and online activity are now under examination.
We are treating this matter as deadly serious. — Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for Poland's special services coordinator
According to interior ministry spokeswoman Karolina Gałecka, the case began when the State Protection Service — the unit responsible for the physical protection of senior politicians — received an email containing information about a potential attack on the prime minister and the defence minister, and forwarded it to the police. That single message set in motion the machinery that ended in the Lower Silesia detention.
Polish broadcaster TVN24 reported an additional, unsettling detail: a person alerted security services about an individual seeking volunteers to carry out an attack using firearms. The broadcaster's account described a meeting with a man identified only as Krzysztof, during which the two allegedly discussed weapons, hatred of the government and a planned mass killing. The report has not been confirmed by officials, who have released neither the suspect's name nor any detail of the means allegedly envisaged.
What officials have said about the suspect's profile is limited but pointed. Kierwiński told public broadcaster TVP Info that the man is active in extremist online groups that use hateful language and call for violence — the digital trail, he said, was what led the services to him. At the same time, the minister pointedly declined to speculate about political motives, and he cautioned that it was premature to suggest any foreign involvement or state-sponsored direction behind the plot.
Threats against Polish officials have become a grimly regular occurrence, government spokesman Adam Szłapka acknowledged on Sunday — which is precisely why the decision to convene the country's top security bodies is significant. Tusk and Kosiniak-Kamysz were informed of the threat at around 7 a.m. on Sunday, Szłapka said. By 11 a.m., representatives of the police, the State Protection Service and the Internal Security Agency (ABW) were meeting at the agency's counterterrorism centre, at the initiative of Kierwiński and Tomasz Siemoniak, the minister coordinating the special services.
Officials said the case stood apart from the routine stream of warnings. Threats of this kind come in regularly, Szłapka said, but this one was particularly concerning — a formulation echoed by Dobrzyński, who said officials had decided to make the case public deliberately, "to prevent speculation". In other words, Warsaw judged that controlling the story was safer than silence, and that the public deserved to know why its leaders were suddenly under a heavier guard.
Tusk confirmed the detention himself on X, writing that the man threatening an attack had been detained and praising the police for their "swift and decisive action". Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote that the person who had taken steps to carry out an attack was now in custody. Despite the scare, Tusk's schedule did not change: he walked to his office on Sunday morning accompanied by security personnel and attended a meeting on the wave of school violence that has rattled the country in recent days.
The choice of targets is itself a statement about Poland's place in Europe. Tusk has led Poland's government since 2023, after an earlier premiership from 2007 to 2014 and a five-year stint as president of the European Council — a career that has made him one of Europe's most recognisable political figures and, to his opponents, a symbol of the liberal order. Kosiniak-Kamysz, his deputy prime minister and defence minister, is the civilian face of the largest military buildup in Poland's modern history. An attack on both men at once would have struck at the political and military apex of the Polish state simultaneously.
The alleged plot lands in a Poland already living with its nerves exposed. As NATO's eastern anchor, the country has spent recent weeks managing a cascade of security scares: two Russian drones exploded near the Dorohusk-Yahodyn border crossing on September 13, a jet-powered Russian UAV struck some two kilometres from the Polish frontier on September 28, and on September 23 Polish commanders twice scrambled fighter jets while a Russian Mi-8 helicopter briefly crossed into Polish airspace. On two of those occasions, operations at the Lublin and Rzeszów airports were temporarily suspended and border crossings shifted to emergency procedures — a reminder that even strikes landing on the Ukrainian side of the frontier now carry direct operational costs for Poland. That sequence prompted a stark warning to Moscow from NATO's top commander, and it frames the alliance's "theory of victory" debate now playing out in Warsaw.
The air has not been the only vector. On September 23 a fire broke out at a Starlink ground station in Wola Krobowska, some 40 kilometres south of Warsaw — a facility that routes critical internet traffic toward Ukraine. Tusk identified the incident as targeted arson and said officials suspected deliberate sabotage, while digital minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said the attack fit the pattern of Russian hybrid-warfare doctrine. A full picture of Poland's position on NATO's eastern flank is essential context for why Warsaw's security establishment reacts the way it does.
Domestic violence has added to the unease. A spate of school stabbings last week culminated in the death of a caretaker, and politicians across the spectrum have condemned what Tusk has called an increasingly violent public discourse. In August, police detained a 23-year-old man accused of calling for the assassination of senior Polish politicians; in 2024, Tusk said he had received threats in the wake of the assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Violent crime remains rare in Poland, but its politics are deeply polarised — and the alleged plot against Tusk is the most alarming data point yet.
For now, much of the case remains sealed. Police have not released the suspect's identity and have not said whether he has been charged. Gałecka said searches were continuing at the suspect's home and that information about the man would be verified by the police. Investigators are examining his contacts and online activity to determine whether he acted alone or as part of a wider network — and whether the firearms-attack plan described by TVN24's tipster ever moved beyond talk.
What is clear is that the episode will reverberate beyond a single detention. With the war in Ukraine now in its fifth year and Russian pressure on NATO's eastern border intensifying, Poland's leaders have spent months warning that the line between hybrid provocation and direct threat is thinning. Sunday's foiled plot — alleged, unproven, but treated by Warsaw as real — is the moment that warning moved from the abstract to the personal.
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A man in his 60s, described by officials as a Polish national, detained in the Lower Silesia region of southwestern Poland on Sunday, October 12. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said he was traced through analysis of online content and is active in extremist groups. Police have not released his identity and have not announced any charges; his apartment has been searched and his contacts are under review.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. The State Protection Service, which guards senior politicians, received an email describing a potential attack and forwarded it to police. Both men were briefed at about 7 a.m. on Sunday; by 11 a.m. the police, the protection service and the Internal Security Agency were meeting at a counterterrorism centre to coordinate the response.
Officials have not published details of the means allegedly envisaged. Polish broadcaster TVN24 reported that a tipster alerted the services about a man seeking volunteers for an attack using firearms, discussing weapons and hatred of the government. That account is journalistic reporting, not an official finding. Special-services spokesman Jacek Dobrzyński said only that the likelihood of the threats being carried out was strong.
No — and officials have cautioned against assuming any. Kierwiński said it was premature to suggest foreign involvement or state-sponsored sabotage, describing the evidence as pointing to an individual operating within extremist online circles. The plot surfaced against a backdrop of Russian drone and sabotage scares, but the government has drawn no link between the two.
