Ukraine war: Russian ambassador doused in red paint in Poland

Russia‘s ambassador to Poland was doused in red paint and pelted with objects as he tried to lay a wreath at a memorial to Soviet soldiers in Warsaw today.

Sergei Andreev was confronted by protesters as he tried to mark Victory Day – Nazi Germany‘s surrender in 1945 – at the Soviet Military ceremony in the Polish capital.

He was blocked from entering the cemetery by a crowd that waved Ukrainian flags in his face and chanted ‘fascist’ before people began throwing things at him. 

Andreev and his security detail were hit multiple times with projectiles before one demonstrator threw a bag of red paint into his face. 

The delegation where prevented from reaching the war memorial at the centre of the cemetery or laying the wreaths they had brought with them.

Instead, police had to be called to escort them away. Andreev said later that he had not been injured during the fracas.

But the incident highlights tensions that have been building between Russia and other former Soviet states since the invasion of Ukraine.

Poland – which has a long and bloody history with Soviet Russia – has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since the early days of the war and has been on the receiving end of threats by Kremlin propagandists as a result.

Despite the threats, the Polish government has continued to supply weapons to Ukraine including sending more than 200 T-72 tanks to bolster its armed forces.

Russian state media was quick to seize on the incident in Warsaw as evidence of what it claims is growing anti-Russian sentiment in the West, motivated by what the Kremlin insists is Nazism.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Moscow’s foreign ministry, posted about the incident on her Telegram channel – saying that ‘fans of neo-Nazism have once again bared their faces, 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 for every decent person prove the already obvious – the West has set a course for the reincarnation of fascism,’ she messaged to followers.