Russian Ambassador to Poland doused with red paint at Warsaw cemetery

Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergei Andreev was doused with red paint while trying to lay a wreath at the cemetery of Soviet soldiers in Warsaw, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Monday.

According to RIA Novosti, Poles and Ukrainians blocked the diplomat’s path. Andreev was accompanied by police out of the cemetery. He later said that he was not injured.

“We still need to figure it out. Maybe just a scratch, but neither I nor the team were seriously injured,” Andreev said, as cited by RIA Novosti.

Referencing the incident, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova alleged via Telegram that “fans of neo-Nazism have once again showed their face – and it is bloody.”

“The demolition of monuments to the heroes of the Second World War, the desecration of graves, and now the disruption of the flower-laying ceremony on a holy day, celebrated by every decent person, proves the obvious – the West has set a course for the reincarnation of fascism,” she said.

The Russian Embassy in Poland said it would protest against the attack on the ambassador.

“We will make a formal protest, although I believe that the authorities were notified of our plans. When they did not recommend us to hold a wider event we met them halfway and did not aggravate. All that was left is to ensure elementary order, it would seem,” said Andreev, as cited by RIA Novosti.