Poland will close the Russian consulate in Krakow after evidence was found that Moscow was responsible for a major fire that almost completely destroyed a shopping mall in Warsaw in May 2024, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced.
Already tense relations between Warsaw and Moscow cooled after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday that Poland "knows for sure" that Russian secret services were responsible for a major fire on Mariwiljska Street in the capital, Reuters reported.
"Due to evidence that Russian special services committed a shameful act of sabotage of the shopping center on Mariwiljska Street, I have decided to withdraw my consent to the operation of the Consulate of the Russian Federation in Krakow," Sikorski wrote on the X network.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Poland was deliberately cutting ties with Moscow, the state-run RIA news agency reported.
"Warsaw continues to deliberately destroy relations, acting against the interests of its citizens," RIA quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying, adding that Russia would soon give an "adequate response."
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In October, Poland announced it would close the Russian consulate in Poznan over suspicions of sabotage attempts by Russia. In response, Russia closed the Polish consulate in St. Petersburg.
In addition to Krakow and Poznań, Russia has a consulate in Gdansk and an embassy in Warsaw.
In March, Lithuanian prosecutors accused Russian military intelligence of orchestrating the arson attack at an IKEA store in Vilnius, which occurred three days before the fire in neighboring Poland.
Russia has denied involvement in these arson incidents.
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