WARSAW, Poland –
Russia’s ambassador to Poland was sprayed with red paint thrown at him by protesters against the war in Ukraine, preventing him from paying tribute to Red Army soldiers killed during World War II in a cemetery in Warsaw on Monday.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the attack, saying in her news release that “we will not be afraid”, while “the people of Europe must be afraid to see their reflection in the mirror”.
Ambassador Sergei Andreev arrived at the cemetery of Soviet soldiers to lay flowers on Victory Day, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies. The great Russian patriotic holiday was celebrated with pomp at a parade on Red Square in Moscow.
When he arrived at the Soviet military cemetery in the Polish capital, Andreev was greeted by hundreds of activists opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Protesters first grabbed a wreath of flowers he intended to lay in the cemetery and trampled on it. Red paint was thrown behind him before a protester standing next to him threw a large stain of it in his face.
Protesters carried Ukrainian flags and chanted “fascists” and “murderers” against him, and some wore white sheets smeared with red, symbolizing Ukrainian victims of the Russian war. Other people around him were also spotted sprayed with what looked like red paint.
Zakharova said that “neo-Nazi fans have shown their face again”. She said that along with the removal of monuments to World War II heroes of the Soviet Army, the attack reflected “the course of the rebirth of fascism.”
Some Russian commentators have suggested that the attack on the ambassador could lead Moscow to withdraw and ask the Polish ambassador to leave.
The Polish government has been criticized for failing to provide more security for the ambassador, leading to an incident that Russia could use to portray Poland as hostile to Moscow.
Among the critics was former Interior Minister Bartlomej Senkiewicz, who said he could not understand why there was no greater protection for the ambassador when for weeks “you could feel how May 9 could end in Warsaw”.
However, the current Polish Interior Minister noted that the Polish government had advised the Russian ambassador not to lay flowers at the cemetery and noted that the police had allowed him to leave the scene safely.
“Gathering opponents of Russian aggression against Ukraine, where the crime of genocide is committed every day, was legal,” Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski added. “The emotions of the Ukrainian women participating in the demonstration, whose husbands are fighting bravely in defense of their homeland, are understandable.
Protesters also marched in Warsaw on Sunday night to protest the war, bringing a tank to a tractor and parking it in front of the Russian embassy. Since the start of the war on February 24, images of Ukrainian tractors hauling Russian tanks have been a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
The Soviet Cemetery is located in a huge park on the road connecting the city center with the international airport. It is the last resting place for more than 20,000 Red Army soldiers who died on Polish soil in battles while helping to defeat Nazi Germany.
While Poland has removed some Red Army monuments in the years since it overthrew Moscow-backed communist rule, it has allowed the cemetery to remain undisturbed. Although Soviet troops defeated the Nazis, earlier in the war, Soviet forces invaded Poland following a secret agreement with the Nazi government and committed atrocities against Poles, including mass executions and deportations in Siberia.
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