Shouting “Fascists, Fascists!”, Protesters poured red syrup on Russia’s ambassador to Warsaw during a ceremony marking the end of World War II, which Russia is celebrating today separately from the rest of Europe.
The images broadcast by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, without sound, show Sergei Andreyev, bathed in red syrup, along with many faces of the Russian delegation.
Behind them are the Ukrainian flags held by the protesters.
According to Ria Novosti, the Russian ambassador was to lay a wreath at the Soviet cemetery in Warsaw, where Soviet soldiers of World War II are buried, as part of the May 9, 1945 celebration.
The war in Ukraine has cast a shadow over this year’s Victory Day, in which Moscow honors the 27 million Soviets who lost their lives in World War II. Poland, a strong supporter of Ukraine in its resistance to the Russian invasion, has opposed any large-scale celebrations.
Videos posted on Twitter show protesters, some holding Ukrainian flags, encircling the Russian delegation and shouting “fascists” before Ambassador Sergei Andreyev was bathed in red syrup.
Andreyev told reporters that he and his team were not seriously injured in the incident, Russian news agency TASS reported.
“We will hold a formal protest,” he said. “When they advised us not to hold a bigger event, we met them halfway, we did not worsen the situation.”
Earlier today, phrases such as “Kill Putin” were found written in blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, on a monument in the cemetery, the private television network TVN24 reported. The slogan was later erased.
A protester told TVN24 that it was good that the ambassador was covered in red syrup.
“We are with Mariupol with all our hearts,” he said, referring to the war-torn city in southeastern Ukraine.
The Polish Foreign Ministry described the incident as “sad”. “Diplomats enjoy special protection, regardless of the policies pursued by the governments they represent,” he said in a statement.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “A strong protest has been sent to the Polish authorities to show tolerance for neo-Nazi atrocities.”
He also demanded that the Polish authorities organize a new wreath-laying ceremony immediately after the incident that forced the suspension of the original organization.
Poland, the homeland of the Solidarity trade union that played a key role in the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, has long had strained relations with Russia and is a supporter of tough sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
More than three million Ukrainians have fled to Poland since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.
SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
Source: Capital
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