WARSAW, Poland -
Russia's ambassador to Poland was splattered with purple paint thrown at him by protesters against the battle in Ukraine, stopping him from paying respects on Monday at a Warsaw cemetery to Purple Military troopers who died through the Second World Battle.
Russian Overseas Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced the assault, saying on her messaging app channel that "we can't be scared" whereas the "folks of Europe ought to be scared to see their reflection in a mirror."
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Ambassador Sergey Andreev arrived on the Soviet troopers' cemetery to put flowers on Victory Day, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies. The main Russian patriotic vacation was celebrated with pomp in a parade at Purple Sq. in Moscow.
As he arrived on the Soviet Navy Cemetery within the Polish capital, Andreev was met by a whole bunch of activists against Russia's battle in Ukraine. The protesters first snatched away a wreath of flowers that he had meant to put on the cemetery and trampled it. Purple paint was thrown from behind at him earlier than a protester standing beside him threw an enormous blob of it in his face.
The protesters carried Ukrainian flags and chanted fascists” and “murderers” at him, in Russian, whereas some have been wearing white sheets smeared with purple, symbolizing the Ukrainian victims of Russia's battle. Different folks in his entourage have been additionally seen splattered with what gave the impression to be purple paint.
Zakharova stated that “admirers of the neo-Nazis have as soon as once more proven their face.” She stated that together with the removing of monuments to Soviet military Second World Battle heroes, the assault mirrored the “course for the reincarnation of fascism.”
Some Russian commentators instructed that the assault on the ambassador might immediate Moscow to recall him and ask the Polish ambassador to go away.
The Polish authorities confronted criticism for not offering the ambassador with extra safety, permitting for an incident to happen that Russia might use to depict Poland as hostile to Moscow.
Among the many critics was a former inside minister, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, who stated he could not perceive why there wasn't extra safety for the ambassador when for weeks “you can really feel how Might 9 might finish in Warsaw.”
Poland's present inside minister, nonetheless, famous that Poland's authorities had suggested the Russian ambassador in opposition to laying flowers on the cemetery, and famous that police allowed him to securely depart the scene.
“The gathering of opponents of Russian aggression in opposition to Ukraine, the place the crime of genocide takes place day-after-day, was authorized,” Inside Minister Mariusz Kaminski added. “The feelings of Ukrainian girls participating within the demonstration, whose husbands are combating bravely in protection of their homeland, are comprehensible.”
Protesters additionally marched in Warsaw on Sunday night to protest the battle, bringing a tank on a tractor and parking it in entrance of the Russian Embassy. Because the battle started on Feb. 24, pictures of Ukrainian tractors hauling off Russian tanks have been symbols of Ukrainian resistance.
The Soviet cemetery is about amid an enormous park on the route linking downtown to the worldwide airport. It's the remaining resting place of greater than 20,000 Purple Military troopers who perished on Polish soil combating whereas serving to to defeat Nazi Germany.
Whereas Poland has eliminated some monuments to the Purple Military within the a long time because it threw off Moscow-backed communist rule, it has allowed the cemetery to stay undisturbed. Although Soviet troopers defeated the Nazis, earlier within the battle the Soviet forces had invaded Poland following a secret settlement with the German Nazi authorities, and carried out atrocities in opposition to Poles, together with mass executions and deportations to Siberia.
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