Russia pledges harsh response after Polish 'seizure' of embassy school
Russia on Saturday promised it would respond harshly to what it said was Poland's illegal seizure of its embassy school in Warsaw, an act it called a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, Reuters reports.
Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement that the Polish authorities had burst onto the embassy school's grounds with the aim of seizing it.
"We regard this latest hostile act by the Polish authorities as a blatant violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and as an encroachment on Russian diplomatic property in Poland," the ministry said.
"Such an insolent step by Warsaw, which goes beyond the framework of civilised inter-state relations, will not remain without a harsh reaction and consequences for the Polish authorities and Polish interests in Russia," it said.
Sergei Andreyev, Moscow's ambassador to Poland, had earlier told Russian state news agencies that the building housing the embassy school was a diplomatic one which Polish authorities had no right to seize.
The two countries' already fraught relations have soured further over the war in Ukraine with Warsaw positioning itself as one of Kyiv's staunchest allies, playing a leading role in persuading allies to provide it with heavy weaponry.
