Russia closing Polish consulate in Kaliningrad in tit-for-tat move
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the move on Friday.
This follows Poland ordering the Russian consulate in the southern city of Krakow to shut in May after authorities accused Moscow of orchestrating a fire that destroyed a Warsaw shopping centre last year.
The May 12, 2024, arson destroyed more than 1,000 shops at the Marywilska 44 centre, but no one was injured.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski accused Russian special services of involvement, saying there was evidence they had committed a 'reprehensible act of sabotage' against the centre. Russia denied any involvement in the attack.
In May, Russia promised an 'adequate response' to Poland's move, and on Friday, the Foreign Ministry said it was 'withdrawing consent for the functioning of the Consulate General of Poland in Kaliningrad from August 29'.
It also said Poland's charge d'affaires in Russia was summoned and handed a formal note announcing the move, citing 'unfriendly' and 'unjustified' actions by the Polish government.
'This step was caused by the unfounded and hostile actions of the Polish side, expressed in the reduction of the Russian consular presence on the territory of Poland,' it added.
Strained ties
Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pawel Wronski said Russia's decision to close the consulate was unjustified.
The possibility of this decision 'was taken into account by the Foreign Ministry', he told reporters on Friday. But he added that this 'doesn't mean that it is a legitimate decision'.
'Unlike Russia, Poland does not engage in sabotage, cyberattacks or conduct actions against the Russian state,' he said.
He added that Poland would 'respond adequately' to the decision, without elaborating.
Diplomatic ties between Moscow and Warsaw have been historically strained and have frayed further over Russia's war in Ukraine.
Poland, a NATO and European Union member, is one of the main countries through which Western nations supply weapons and ammunition to Kyiv.
In May 2024, Poland imposed restrictions on the movements of Russian diplomats on its soil due to Moscow's 'involvement' in what it called a 'hybrid war'.
Poland later ordered the closure of Russia's consulate in Poznan and said it was willing to close the other consulates if acts of 'terrorism' continued.
In January, Russia closed the Polish consulate in St Petersburg in retaliation.
Apart from the embassies, both countries now only have one consulate left on their respective territories.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
17 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,242
This is how things stand on Sunday, July 20: Fighting Russian forces launched a missile attack on Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, killing two people and damaging 'an outpatient clinic, a school and a cultural institution', according to the central region's governor, Serhiy Lysak. Another Russian missile attack on the Black Sea port of Odesa killed at least one person overnight and wounded six others, including six children, officials said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces launched 'more than 300 strike drones and over 30 missiles' against Ukrainian cities during the overnight attack. The attacks also damaged critical infrastructure in the Sumy region, 'leaving several thousand families without electricity', the Ukrainian president added. In Russia, the Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said early on Sunday that Russian air defences downed at least 15 Ukrainian drones heading for the capital. Russia's Ministry of Defence said early on Sunday that its air defence units destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones, including 21 over the Bryansk region, on the Ukrainian border. This came hours after the ministry said its air defence units shot down six missiles and 349 drones over Russian territory on Saturday. Earlier, Russia had to suspend trains for about four hours overnight in the southern Rostov region when it came under a Ukrainian drone attack, which injured one railway worker. The acting governor of the Rostov region, on Ukraine's eastern border, said Ukrainian drones had also caused fires and knocked down power lines. Politics and diplomacy Zelenskyy said Ukraine sent Russia a proposal offering a new round of peace talks to take place next week, after negotiations stalled last month. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of deporting Ukrainians to Georgia and leaving them stranded there without proper documents, hundreds of miles from their home. He said Ukraine has brought back 43 people so far, but more people remain in 'difficult conditions' at the border. Earlier, Volunteers Tbilisi, an aid group, said at least 56 Ukrainians, mostly prisoners who completed their sentences and were subsequently ordered to leave Russia, were being held in 'inhumane' conditions in a basement near the Russian-Georgian border. India said it did not support 'unilateral sanctions' by the European Union, after Brussels imposed penalties on Russia that included a Rosneft oil refinery in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
Zelenskyy says Ukraine sent Russia offer of new peace talks
Ukraine has proposed to hold a new round of peace talks with Russia next week after negotiations stalled last month. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on Saturday that Defence Council secretary Rustem Umerov made the offer of a meeting with Russian negotiators for next week. 'Everything should be done to achieve a ceasefire,' Zelenskyy said in his evening address to the nation. 'The Russian side should stop hiding from decisions.' Ukraine's leader also reiterated his readiness to have a face-to-face sit-down with Putin. 'A meeting at the leadership level is needed to truly ensure peace – lasting peace,' he said. There was no immediate response from Russia. Secretary of the NSDC proposed a new meeting with Russia next week. They must stop hiding from decisions. Ceasefire. Prisoner exchanges. Return of children. End to the killings. And a meeting at the level of leaders is needed to truly ensure a lasting peace. Ukraine is ready. — Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 19, 2025 Umerov, a former defence minister, was appointed last week as the head of the National Security and Defence Council and tasked with adding more momentum to the negotiations. He headed his country's delegation in two previous rounds of talks in Turkiye earlier this year, which yielded little more than an agreement to exchange prisoners and soldiers' remains. In previous rounds, Russia outlined a list of hardline demands that were not acceptable to Ukraine, calling on it to cede four Ukrainian regions it claims as its own and reject Western military support. However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Friday indicated that Moscow agreed with a statement by Zelenskyy that peace efforts needed 'more momentum'. The shift came after United States President Donald Trump, who initially appeared to adopt a conciliatory approach towards Russia after entering office, upped the pressure on Moscow. This week, Trump set a 50-day deadline for Moscow to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine or face '100 percent tariffs' and the prospect of secondary sanctions being imposed on countries that buy Russian oil. He also promised to ramp up arms shipments to the war-battered country. Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the ministry, said on Thursday that Russia would not accept the 'blackmail' of Washington's sanctions ultimatum, and the decision to resume weapons deliveries was a signal to Ukraine to 'abandon the peace process'. Ongoing exchange of fire Kyiv extended its invitation for more talks with Moscow after Russian forces staged a massive drone attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa early on Saturday, killing at least one resident and injuring six others, according to Zelenskyy. Posting on X on Saturday, the Ukrainian president said Russia launched more than 30 missiles and 300 drones during its overnight assault that affected 10 regions of the country. Russia, meanwhile, had to suspend trains for about four hours overnight in the southern Rostov region when it came under a Ukrainian drone attack, which injured one railway worker. On Saturday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that Russian air defence systems shot down three drones en route to the city. Two Moscow airports – Vnukovo and Domodedovo – suspended arrivals and departures for safety reasons, but later resumed operations, Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said. The Russian Defence Ministry said its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 27 Ukrainian drones in total from 3pm to 7pm Moscow time (12:00-16:00 GMT). Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has led to Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II, with estimates suggesting 1.2 million people have been wounded or killed.
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
Genocide or tragedy? Ukraine, Poland at odds over Volyn massacre of 1943
Kyiv, Ukraine – Nadiya escaped the rapists and killers only because her father hid her in a haystack amidst the shooting, shouting and bloodshed that took place 82 years ago. 'He covered me with hay and told me not to get out no matter what,' the 94-year-old woman told Al Jazeera – and asked to withhold her last name and personal details. On July 11, 1943, members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA), a nationalist paramilitary group armed with axes, knives and guns, stormed Nadiya's village on the Polish-Ukrainian border, killing ethnic Polish men and raping women. 'They also killed anyone who tried to protect the Poles,' Nadiya said. The nonagenarian is frail and doesn't go out much, but her face, framed by milky white hair, lights up when she recalls the names and birthdays of her grand- and great-grandchildren. She also remembers the names of her neighbours who were killed or forced to flee to Poland, even though her parents never spoke about the attack, now known as the Volyn massacre. 'The Soviets forbade it,' Nadiya said, noting how Moscow demonised the UIA, which kept fighting the Soviets until the early 1950s. Nadiya said her account may enrage today's Ukrainian nationalists who lionise fighters of the UIA for having championed freedom from Moscow during World War II. After Communist purges, violent atheism, forced collectivisation and a famine that killed millions of Ukrainians, the UIA leaders chose what they thought was the lesser of two evils. They sided with Nazi Germany, which invaded the USSR in 1941. In the end, though, the Nazis refused to carve out an independent Ukraine and threw one of the UIA's leaders, Stepan Bandera, into a concentration camp. But another UIA leader, Roman Shukhevych, was accused of playing a role in the Holocaust – and in the mass killings of ethnic Poles in what is now the western Ukrainian region of Volyn and adjacent areas in 1943. Genocide? Up to 100,000 civilian Poles, including women and children, were stabbed, axed, beaten or burned to death during the Volyn massacre, according to survivors, Polish historians and officials who consider it a 'genocide'. 'What's horrifying isn't the numbers but the way the murders were carried out,' Robert Derevenda of the Polish Institute of National Memory told Polskie Radio on July 11. This year, the Polish parliament decreed July 11 as 'The Volyn Massacre Day' in remembrance of the 1943 killings. 'A martyr's death for just being Polish deserves to be commemorated,' the bill said. 'From Poland's viewpoint, yes, this is a tragedy of the Polish people, and Poland is fully entitled to commemorate it,' Kyiv-based analyst Igar Tyshkevych told Al Jazeera. However, rightist Polish politicians may use the day to promote anti-Ukrainian narratives, and a harsh response from Kyiv may further trigger tensions, he said. 'All of these processes ideally should be a matter of discussion among historians, not politicians,' he added. Ukrainian politicians and historians, meanwhile, call the Volyn massacre a 'tragedy'. They cite a lower death toll and accuse the Polish army of the reciprocal killing of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians. In post-Soviet Ukraine, UIA leaders Bandera and Shukhevych have often been hailed as national heroes, and hundreds of streets, city squares and other landmarks are named after them. Evolving views and politics '[The USSR] branded 'Banderite' any proponent of Ukraine's independence or even any average person who stood for the legitimacy of public representation of Ukrainian culture,' Kyiv-based human rights advocate Vyacheslav Likhachyov told Al Jazeera. The demonisation backfired when many advocates of Ukraine's independence began to sympathise with Bandera and the UIA, 'turning a blind eye to their radicalism, xenophobia and political violence', he said. In the 2000s, anti-Russian Ukrainian leaders began to celebrate the UIA, despite objections from many Ukrainians, especially in the eastern and southern regions. These days, the UIA is seen through a somewhat myopic prism of Ukraine's ongoing war with Russia, according to Likhachyov. Ukraine's political establishment sees the Volyn massacre and armed skirmishes between Ukrainians and Poles as only 'a war related to the Ukrainians' 'fight for their land'', according to Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher at Bremen University in Germany. 'And during a war, they say, anything happens, and a village, where the majority is on the enemy's side, is considered a 'legitimate target',' he explained. Many right-leaning Ukrainian youngsters 'fully accepted' Bandera's radicalism and the cult of militant nationalism, he said. Before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, thousands of far-right nationalists rallied throughout Ukraine to commemorate Bandera's January 1 birthday. 'Bandera is our father, Ukraine is our mother,' they chanted. Within hours, the Polish and Israeli embassies issued declarations in protest, reminding them of the UIA's role in the Holocaust and the Volyn massacre. Far-right activists began volunteering to fight Moscow-backed separatists in southeastern Ukraine in 2014 and enlisted in droves in 2022. 'In the situational threat to [Ukraine's] very existence, there's no room for reflection and self-analysis,' rights advocate Likhachyov said. Warsaw, meanwhile, will keep using the Volyn massacre to make demands for concessions while threatening to oppose Ukraine's integration into the European Union, he said. As for Moscow, it 'traditionally plays' the dispute to sow discord between Kyiv and Warsaw, analyst Tyshkevych said, and to accuse Ukrainian leaders of 'neo-Nazi' proclivities. Is reconciliation possible? Today, memories of the Volyn massacre remain deeply contested. For many Ukrainians, the UIA's image as freedom fighters has been bolstered by Russia's 2022 invasion, somewhat pushing aside reflection on the group's role in the World War II atrocities. For Poland, commemoration of the massacre has become a marker of national trauma and, at times, a point of leverage in political disputes with Ukraine. In April, Polish experts began exhuming the remnants of the Volyn massacre victims in the western Ukrainian village of Puzhniky after Kyiv lifted a seven-year moratorium on such exhumations. Some believe this may be a first step in overcoming the tensions over the Volyn massacre. Reconciliation, historians say, won't come easily. 'The way to reconciliation is often painful and requires people to accept historical realities they're uncomfortable with,' Ivar Dale, a senior policy adviser with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, a human rights watchdog, told Al Jazeera. 'Both [Poland and Ukraine] are modern European democracies that can handle an objective investigation of past atrocities in ways that a country like Russia unfortunately can not,' he said.
