Russia summons Poland's envoy to protest seizure of its embassy school by Warsaw police

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) – The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned Poland's charge d'affaire in Moscow to protest the seizure of its embassy school in Warsaw, Poland's capital, by local police.

The ministry said it conveyed a strong protest to Jacek Sladewski, describing the Polish authorities' action as a "gross violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961."

Last Saturday, Polish police broke open the doors of the Russian Embassy school in Warsaw, blocked the exits, and gave people until 7 p.m. local time (1700GMT) to leave the campus.

The ministry stressed that the actions of the Polish authorities "look especially cynical" as they are directed against students at the school who were "put out on the street."

"The Polish diplomat was also told that this step is another link in the policy pursued by Warsaw, devoid of any idea of the norms of morality, ethics and law, aimed at trying to annoy Russia and destroy our relations to the ground," it said.

The diplomatic service reminded about the “systematic destruction of the Soviet memorial heritage in Poland, the state patronage of acts of vandalism on military graves or the deliberate falsification of the history of the Second World War."

"Warsaw willingly offers the country's territory as a springboard for pumping weapons to the Kyiv regime, sends Polish mercenaries to Ukraine, and takes an openly aggressive hostile position towards Russia," it said.

The ministry said the response to the school seizure "will not be long in coming."

"We do not count on the manifestations of the Polish authorities' reason, but we proceed from the fact that our retaliatory measures may make them think about the long-term consequences of their policy," it said.

Ties between Moscow and Warsaw, one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies, have further deteriorated since the war in Ukraine began in Feb. 2022.