Poland is withdrawing its consent for the operation of Russia’s last remaining consulate in the country, located in the city of Gdańsk. The announcement was made on Wednesday by Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski during his address to the Sejm. According to him, an official note will be delivered to Russian representatives within hours.
Sikorski described the closure of the consulate as a response to the damage to railway tracks on the Warsaw–Lublin line, which investigators in Poland have classified as an act of sabotage. A day earlier, authorities reported that the suspects — Ukrainian nationals — had allegedly acted on instructions from Russian special services. Moscow has denied these accusations.
After the closure of the Gdańsk consulate, Russia will have only one functioning diplomatic mission left in Poland — the embassy in Warsaw. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, several consulates operated in the country, but their number has steadily declined. The previous one to close was the consulate in Poznań, shut down after an attempted arson attack on a factory in Wrocław, which Polish authorities also linked to Russia.
Sikorski stressed that shutting down the consulate will not be Poland’s only response to the sabotage incident.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Kommersant that Russia would “reduce the diplomatic and consular presence of Poland in the country.” In addition to the embassy in Moscow, Poland currently operates a consulate in Irkutsk.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that the explosion on the railway line from Warsaw to Lublin, and further toward the Ukrainian border, was caused by “an unprecedented act of sabotage,” and pledged to identify those responsible “regardless of who is behind it.” Tusk also said that the damage, which occurred on 16 November, was deliberate and could have caused a derailment and casualties. He called the incident the most serious threat to Poland since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov commented on Tuesday that “Russia is being blamed for every manifestation of the hybrid and direct war that is taking place.” “It would be quite strange if Russia were not blamed first,” Peskov said, as quoted by Interfax.
