Russia closes Polish consulate in Kaliningrad in tit-for-tat diplomatic row
Russia's Foreign Ministry said the latest closure was retaliation for Poland's decision in May 2025 to close the Russian Consulate in Krakow. 'No unfriendly attack against our country will remain without an appropriate reaction and consequences,' the Russian agency said.
Poland's closure in Krakow was in response to a blaze at a Warsaw shopping center that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said was arson commissioned by Russian security services.
Noone was killed in the May 12, 2024 fire at the Marywilska 44 shopping center, but it destroyed a marketplace of 1,400 shops and service points, with many of the vendors from Warsaw's Vietnamese community.
Russia has denied its involvement in the Marywilska fire and other acts of sabotage in Poland that Warsaw officials have attributed to Moscow.
Poland last year ordered the closure of the Russian Consulate in Poznan, in response to acts of sabotage, including arson attacks, that officials said were sponsored by Moscow.
The latest closure leaves only one Russian Consulate in Poland, in the city of Gdansk.
Russian and Polish relations have soured since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2024, with Warsaw staunchly supporting Kyiv and providing aid.
There also have been rising concerns that Russia is trying to destabilize Europe through covert operations across the continent.
On Tuesday a British jury convicted three men of arson in an attack on an east London warehouse that was storing equipment destined for Ukraine. Authorities said Russian intelligence was behind the plot.
Countries along NATO's eastern flank, like Poland and the Baltic states, feel especially vulnerable. In March, Lithuania accused Russia of carrying out an arson attack at an IKEA store in the capital, Vilnius, last year.
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Even in the annals of Mr. Trump's erratic presidency, the Anchorage meeting with Mr. Putin now stands out as a reversal of historic proportions. Mr. Trump abandoned the main goal he brought to his subarctic summit and, as he revealed on Saturday, would no longer even pursue an immediate cease-fire. Instead, he bowed to Mr. Putin's preferred approach of negotiating a broader peace agreement requiring Ukraine to give up territory. The net effect was to give Mr. Putin a free pass to continue his war against his neighbor indefinitely without further penalty, pending time-consuming negotiations for a more sweeping deal that appears elusive at best. Instead of a halt to the slaughter — 'I'm in this to stop the killing,' Mr. Trump had said on the way to Alaska — the president left Anchorage with pictures of him and Mr. Putin joshing on a red carpet and in the presidential limousine known as the Beast. 'He got played again,' said Ivo Daalder, who was ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama. 'For all the promises of a cease-fire, of severe economic consequences, of being disappointed, it took two minutes on the red carpet and 10 minutes in the Beast for Putin to play Trump again. What a sad spectacle.' Mr. Trump's allies focused on his plans to convene a three-way meeting with Mr. Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. 'Let me tell you, I've never been more hopeful this war can end honorably and justly than I am right now,' Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a leading hawk on the Ukraine war, said on Fox News Friday night. The cease-fire that Mr. Trump gave up in Alaska had been so important to him last month that he threatened tough new economic sanctions if Russia did not pause the war within 50 days. Then he moved the deadline up to last Friday. Now there is no cease-fire, no deadline and no sanctions plan. Mr. Trump, characteristically, declared victory nonetheless, deeming the meeting 'a great and very successful day in Alaska.' After calling Mr. Zelensky and European leaders from Air Force One on the way back to Washington, Mr. Trump said he would now try to broker the more comprehensive peace agreement Mr. Putin has sought. 'It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,' he wrote on social media on Saturday. He said that Mr. Zelensky would come to Washington for meetings on Monday to pave the way for a joint meeting with Mr. Putin. 'If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin,' Mr. Trump said. 'Potentially, millions of people's lives will be saved.' 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Mr. Trump talked about 'agreement' on a number of unspecified points, and Mr. Putin referred cryptically to an 'understanding' between the two of them. At the moment, however, it does not look like Mr. Putin has made any move toward compromise, even as Mr. Trump has now given up on his bid for an immediate cease-fire. Before the Alaska summit, Russian forces were pounding Ukraine as part of their relentless yearslong assault. And for now, at least, they will continue.
