The Russian ambassador to Poland was sprayed with a red substance on Monday and attacked by pro-Ukrainian demonstrators in Warsaw on the occasion of the anniversary of the end of the Second World War, an incident immediately denounced by Moscow.
According to an AFP photographer present on the spot, pro-Ukrainian activists, chanting “fascists” while waving the Ukrainian national flag, blocked the passage of the ambassador when he was to lay a wreath at the cemetery in Warsaw where rest Soviet soldiers who died in World War II.
May 9, 1945 marks for the Russians the victory over Nazi Germany.
Afterwards, a few people threw a red substance on her face and clothes, and also splashed around her.
After wiping his face with his hand, Sergei Andreev declared “I am proud of my country and my president”. He also told Russian news agency RIA Novosti that he was not seriously injured in the attack, adding that the red substance was a kind of syrup.
The incident denounced by Russia
The incident was immediately denounced by Moscow.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, said that “supporters of neo-Nazism have once again shown their faces, and it is bloody.”
Moscow also addressed “a firm protest” to the Polish authorities “because of their indulgence with regard to young neo-Nazis”.
Russia, which constantly denounces the “Russophobia” of Westerners in general and Poland in particular, has also demanded to be able to organize “without delay the ceremony of laying the wreath by ensuring its most total security in the face of all kinds of provocations” .
The Russian Embassy had planned to hold an official ceremony at the site, but canceled after a negative response from the Mayor of Warsaw and the Foreign Ministry.
Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said after the incident that “the Polish authorities did not recommend that the Russian ambassador lay flowers on May 9 in Warsaw.”
“The police allowed the ambassador to leave safely,” he added.
The Polish Interior Minister also tweeted that the activists had gathered there legally to protest against “Russian aggression in Ukraine, where every day the crime of genocide takes place”.
“The emotion of Ukrainian women – who took part in the protest and whose husbands are bravely fighting to defend their homeland – is understandable,” he added.