Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk Wednesday said the killing of a Russian artist who was critical of President Vladimir Putin has the hallmarks of a political assassination.
Robert Kuzovkov, known by the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, was shot and killed at close range near his home in the eastern Polish city of Biala Podlaska on Monday, prosecutors said Tuesday.
“Everything points to this being a political murder," Tusk said at a news briefing in Warsaw. “But we must wait for evidence or more concrete indications. Because if that was the case — if it was ordered by Russia — then it is an extremely serious matter internationally. It would constitute state terrorism.”
Polish investigators initially detained two Belarusian citizens but Tusk said Tuesday that they had been released because authorities had no evidence that they were directly involved in the killing.
Tusk stressed that law enforcement authorities are still collecting evidence.
“The case is difficult. If there’s a hired killer involved, it’s unfortunately not easy to identify such a person,” Tusk said, adding that Skrepetsky had been offered protection by Polish authorities but he had refused it.
Through his art, Skrepetsky “expressed criticism of the current policies of the Russian authorities,” Polish prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday.
He painted unflattering portraits of Putin, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and other high-ranking Russian officials. One depicts Putin being cradled in the arms of the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
On Sunday, he posted a video on his YouTube channel showing him in Berlin putting a Russian flag in a trash can on June 12, the holiday marking Russia’s sovereignty.
Prosecutors said the artist was approached near his home around 9:45 a.m. Monday by an unidentified man who fired two shots at him, then shot him three more times at close range before fleeing. Prosecutors said the victim died at the scene of gunshot wounds to the head, chest and back.
Since it invaded Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been accused of trying to assassinate its opponents abroad, including targeting exiled activists in France and Lithuania.
Officials in Germany have also broken up plots targeting the head of a German weapons supplier to Ukraine and a Ukrainian military official.
Polish authorities arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That same year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain, with Russian operatives as the prime suspects.
A man identified by Polish media as Robert Kuzovkov and by prosecutors as Robert K., in accordance with Polish privacy law, who they said was an artist who used the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, poses for a photo with one of his paintings near the Russian Embassy in Berlin, Germany, on Friday, June 12, 2026, four days before Polish authorities said he was shot and killed in Biala Podlaska, Poland. (Vasily Krestyaninov/SOTA via AP)
A business jet with six people on board crashed on a highway in Laredo, Texas, and caught fire Tuesday night, authorities said, killing one person and causing chaos as people left their vehicles to frantically try to smash the cockpit window and free those inside.
Drivers who came upon the burning plane, which was nearly sheared in half and tipped on its side, captured dramatic rescue scenes on video or rushed toward the aircraft on foot to help. Two people came running with a sledgehammer and shovel, which they used to strike the cockpit glass and try propping open the plane's door.
The plane crashed on the Loop 20 highway near the Texas-Mexico border shortly after 10 p.m., said Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department. He said one person on the plane died in the crash. A person in a car struck by the plane was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
Dashcam footage posted on social media showed the aircraft careening down the highway, taking out a light post before coming to a stop. It came to a rest not far from the Laredo International Airport.
“It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,” said Zayra Garza, an esthetician who was driving her co-workers home when she came upon the crash.
No injuries on the ground were immediately reported, though five officers were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.
The plane, a Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet, departed Tuesday evening from San José del Cabo in Mexico and was bound for Austin, Texas, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.
It's not clear what caused the crash as it reached Laredo, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio. Laredo International Airport Director Gilberto Sanchez told KGNS TV in Laredo that the plane experienced a mechanical failure. He provided no details.
Video posted to social media showed the plane on its side, smashed into a highway barrier. The tail was ripped from the fuselage and laying mostly intact on a lower-level road beneath where the rescue was taking place.
Garza began shooting video as she approached the scene and then stopped her vehicle across from the crippled jet, which was on fire.
She saw someone inside the plane trying to break the cockpit window to escape. Soon, people got out of their vehicles to try to smash the window from the outside as the fire on the fuselage continues to burn.
Garza’s husband jumped out of their vehicle to help and Garza then saw the door of the plane open. She said three people who looked to be teenagers rushed out, followed by someone who appeared to be a pilot. Another member of the crew tried to pull out a person who seemed to be unconscious.
As smoke billowed from the plane, a firefighter used a small ladder to climb into the aircraft to rescue the remaining passenger, while others shot water out of a hose at the wreckage. Rescuers can be heard calling for a rope as others use rods to hold up the plane door.
Several times, officers helping prop open the door dart away from the plane and double over in coughing fits because of the intense smoke.
“What was worrying me was the fire,” she said. “I was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.”
This was the third significant aviation accident in as many days. A B-52 crashed Monday during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California and killed all eight people aboard, while on Sunday, 12 people were killed when a plane on a skydiving outing in Missouri crashed.
NetJets said in a statement that the crash involved one of its aircraft and it is working with authorities. NetJets is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and allows people to buy part ownership in private jets.
People attempt to pull passengers out of a plane after it crashed on a highway Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Laredo, Texas. (Zayra Garza via AP)
People attempt to pull passengers out of a plane after it crashed on a highway Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Laredo, Texas. (Zayra Garza via AP)
A passenger, top, jumps out of a plane after it crashed on a highway as other people help Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Laredo, Texas. (Zayra Garza via AP)
