War in Ukraine: Poland angered by Russia embassy closure

Russia on Friday ordered the closure of the Polish embassy in Smolensk, a Russian city in the west of the country near the important site of the Polish Memorial, according to a decree signed by Prime Minister Michal Michosz. “The proposal of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to close the Polish embassy in Smolensk (…) has been accepted”, indicates the document published on the official Russian portal.

In a statement, Russian diplomacy said Krzysztof Krajewski, Poland’s ambassador to Moscow, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Friday and given a note warning him of the closure. “The atmosphere of unrestrained Russophobia reigning in Poland is in the process of acquiring pathological characteristics, which excludes any “gesture of kindness” on our part,” the Russian press release notes.

A very symbolic city

In response to this “highly symbolic act, again unfriendly and incomprehensible,” Poland immediately “reserves the right to take appropriate measures,” the Polish Foreign Ministry said in a press release. “The decision by the Russian authorities is a manifestation of increasingly bold attempts to falsify history and deny responsibility for the crimes for which the Russian state and citizens of that state are known,” he said. -Added from the same source. Alleging that Moscow’s “crimes in Ukraine today are a continuation of this barbaric practice.”

Smolensk, a city of about 300,000 people, is located a few kilometers from the site of the Katin massacre, where almost 22,000 Polish officers, prisoners of the Red Army, were killed by Stalin’s police in 1940.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed on his way to Smolensk to pay tribute to the victims of the Katin massacre. plane crashA total of 96 people died on April 10, 2010.

(AFP)Show comments