Sikorski’s announcement came after he delivered an address to parliament that called on opposition-aligned President Karol Nawrocki and opposition lawmakers to stop attacking the European Union, Ukraine and Ukrainians living in Poland. He also said Russia spends “billions” on sowing divisions in the EU and fomenting anti-Ukrainian sentiment — of which there has been an outpouring in Poland after the rail sabotage incident.
Polish authorities said the perpetrators were two Ukrainian nationals working for Russia who are now in Belarus.
The last operating Russian consulate in Poland is in the coastal city of Gdańsk. Poland had previously shut down Russian consulates in Kraków and Poznań in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine and hybrid sabotage incidents in Poland. The Gdańsk consulate will close by December 23, Polish news website Onet reported, quoting Russian diplomat Andrei Ordash speaking to the Russian news outlet RIA Novosti.
Russia’s remaining diplomatic post will then be its embassy in Warsaw, even though its future appears uncertain after a motion to call on the government to evict it reportedly won approval of the ruling coalition and most of the opposition, meaning it might be up for a parliamentary vote soon.
Since last weekend, Poland has been dealing with the aftermath of what Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said was a Russia-orchestrated attempt at destroying an important rail line linking Warsaw to Lublin, a major city in the east, and on to Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday that relations with Poland were at a low point.
“The relationship with Poland has fully degraded. This [Gdańsk consulate closure] is a sign of the decline and of the Polish authorities’ intent to reduce to zero any possibility of consular or diplomatic relations. We can only express regret,” Peskov said in his morning briefing, according to the Interfax news agency.
Moscow will scale back Poland’s diplomatic and consular presence in Russia in retaliation, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told the government-owned TASS news agency.