Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he would withdraw his consent to the operation of the last operating Russian consulate in Poland, in Gdansk, in response to the sabotage of a railway line over the weekend, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
Warsaw will soon respond to the railway explosion, the foreign minister added. "This was not only an act of sabotage, but also an act of state terrorism. We will respond, and not only diplomatically," Sikorski stressed to the Polish parliament, adding that this would happen in the next few days.
The weekend explosion on the Warsaw-Lublin line, which connects the Polish capital to the Ukrainian border, followed a wave of arson, sabotage and cyberattacks in Poland and other European countries since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, Reuters notes.
Poland, which is a hub for Western aid to Ukraine, claims that two Ukrainian collaborators behind the sabotage fled to Belarus, which is an ally of Russia. According to Warsaw, the aim was to sow chaos in a country that strongly supports Kiev against Russia's invasion.
Moscow denies responsibility for the sabotage, and accuses Poland of Russophobia, Reuters notes. The Kremlin has already expressed regret over the decision to close the consulate, saying it shows a lack of "common sense".
Russia will reduce the Polish diplomatic presence in the country in response to Warsaw's decision to close the Russian Consulate General in Gdansk, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, quoted by Reuters and TASS, BTA reports.
The Kremlin expressed regret over Warsaw's decision to close the last functioning Russian consulate in Poland, noting that it "has nothing to do with common sense".
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski earlier announced that he was withdrawing the consulate's operating permit due to an explosion on a railway line, which Poland blamed on Russian intelligence. The Kremlin responded to this accusation by accusing Poland of Russophobia.
„Relations with Poland have completely deteriorated. This is probably a manifestation of this deterioration - the desire of the Polish authorities to reduce to zero any possibility of consular or diplomatic relations. One can only express regret here... This has nothing to do with common sense," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to a request to comment on the news of the closure of the Russian embassy.
Polish security services have identified two Ukrainian citizens acting on behalf of Russia, involved in two acts of sabotage of railway transport, the country's Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced, quoted by the Polish news agency PAP.
On Saturday, an explosion destroyed a railway line on the route between Warsaw and Lublin, near the Mika railway station, Garwolin county. Later, near the town of Golomb, Pulawy county, a damaged line caused a sudden stop of a train with 475 passengers. Tusk told the Sejm (lower house of the Polish parliament) that the two perpetrators were Ukrainian citizens who had long been cooperating with Russian services.
After the operation, they left the country, entering Belarus through the Terespol border crossing. One of the suspects was convicted in the city of Lviv for acts of sabotage in May, while the second is a resident of Donbas. The men crossed from Belarus to Poland in the fall of this year.
Tusk added that the two acts of sabotage were carried out in stages. "The first involved installing a steel clamp on the tracks, which was probably intended to derail the train... this attempt fortunately turned out to be completely ineffective," the prime minister said.
He added that the act was supposed to have been recorded with a mobile phone with an external battery installed on the tracks. The incident took place on November 15 at 8:58 p.m. and was captured on surveillance camera footage. "The C4 explosive device was detonated using a trigger connected to a 300-meter electrical cable. A certain amount of the explosive was also found at the scene, but it did not detonate," Tusk said. He added that the device was detonated during the passage of a Warsaw-Pulawi freight train, without causing a derailment. Only minor damage was caused to the floor of the carriage.