Russia-Ukraine War: Russia’s ambassador to Poland runs a protest against Moscow and is attacked by red paint

Russia’s ambassador to Poland, Sergei Andreyev, was attacked on Monday in Warsaw when a group of people protested against Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine he threw red paint at it.

The incident occurred when Andreyev was conducting a floral tribute at the cemetery-mausoleum of Soviet soldiers in Warsaw, along with Russia’s national holiday occasion of Victory Day. The ambassador did not complete his tribute because of the episode.

The protesters wore Ukrainian flags and sang “fascists” and “murderers”while some wore white blankets coated with red, a symbol of Ukrainian victims of the Russian war.

Others around him were also seen spewing red paint.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced the incident and on her Telegram chat channel said that Moscow “not afraid”, while “the people of Europe should be afraid to see their reflection in the mirror”.

Despite the fact that the Russian embassy announced this morning that it will surrender any public action outside its premises, according to the recommendations of the Polish Foreign Ministry and the mayor of the city, the ambassador and a small entourage decided to go to the cemetery.

A group of people were concentrated there, some of them with Ukrainian flags, and when Andreyev was recognized, one group separated from the others to end his aggression.

The ambassador, completely covered in red paint thrown at him, shouted into the crowd he is “proud” of his president, Vladimir Putin, then saying that “those territories do not belong to Ukraine” (referring to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions), managed to go to the waiting car.

Some Russian commentators have suggested that the attack on the ambassador could lead Moscow to summon him, and in turn ask the Polish ambassador to leave.

The Polish government is faced with criticism for not providing more security for the ambassador, allowing an incident to take place that Russia could be used to describe Poland as an enemy to Moscow.

Among the critics was a former interior minister, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, who said he could not understand why there was no more protection for the ambassador when in a few weeks “you can feel how May 9 will end in Warsaw”.

The cemetery-mausoleum of Soviet soldiers covers 19 hectares of Warsaw and was established shortly after World War II to home of the remains of more than 20,000 dead Red Army soldiers between 1944 and 1945.

Ever since the war started in Ukraine, exacerbated anti-Russian sentiment in Polanda country that remained in the orbit of Moscow from 1945 to 1989.

In front of the diplomatic representations of Warsaw and Krakow, where there are Russian consulates, graffiti against the invasion of Ukraine, banners and posters against a Vladimir Putin caricaturized or directly described as Hitler.

Recently, the Warsaw city council unveiled an artistic installation that allows a group of artists to paint 60 meters of sidewalk (including those located in front of the Russian embassy) with murals.

Source: EFE and AP