Poland to close last Russian consulate over ‘unprecedented act of sabotage’

Following the targeting of a railway line from Warsaw to Ukraine, Poland has announced it will close its last Russian consulate in Gdansk, Poland’s northern city. Moscow is to blame for the incident.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told journalists on Wednesday, “I have decided to withdraw my consent for the operation of the Russian consulate in Gdansk.”

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According to Polish news agency PAP, Sikorski claimed to have repeatedly warned Russia that if it did not put an end to its hostility toward Poland, its diplomatic and consular presence would be further diminished.

The embassy in Warsaw will be the only Russian diplomatic base in Poland as a result of this decision.

The Kremlin blasted Poland for “Russophobia” in response to the claim.

“Polish relations have completely deteriorated. When asked about the consulate closure, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “The Polish authorities’ desire to reduce any possibility of consular or diplomatic relations are probably at the forefront of this deterioration.”

“This has nothing to do with common sense,” one might say, “but one can only express regret here.”

Russians’ Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was later quoted by Russian state news agency TASS as saying that Moscow would reduce Poland’s diplomatic and consular presence in Russia.

Unprecedented sabotage

The weekend explosion on a line connecting Warsaw and the Ukraine border was described as an “unprecedented act of sabotage,” according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Tusk revealed to the Polish parliament on Tuesday that the two suspects had long-standing ties to the Russian intelligence.

We now know that two Ukrainians were hired by the Russian Secret Service to carry out the blast of the Polish railroad. The perpetrators’ identities are also known, and they eluded Poland and made way for Belarus.

He claimed that the pair had already left Poland and had already entered Belarus, but that their identities were not known and that the investigation was still pending.

According to data gathered by The Associated Press news agency, Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of organizing numerous attacks and other incidents in Europe since the country’s invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.