Russians have removed Polish flags from a war cemetery in Katyn. The reaction of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MSZ) was immediate.
“There is obviously an official position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in this regard; it is an official protest of the Polish state; the consul was on the spot”, said Paweł Mucha, the advisor to President Andrzej Duda.
“These are such acts of hostility, which show that the Russians are aware that the defence of Ukraine would not be possible to such an extent and in such time if there were no supportive activities of the West,” said Mucha.
On Monday, Deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Marcin Przydacz emphasized that a note would be submitted to Russia’s foreign ministry on the issue. Earlier, the Polish consul in Smolensk confirmed the fact of removing the Polish flag from the memorial in Katyn. He also intervened, demanding an explanation and pointing out that this type of behaviour is absolutely unacceptable by the Polish side and shows a lack of a civilised approach to the issue of remembrance of the victims.
The removal of the flags was reported by the independent Russian portal Meduza, quoting the words of the mayor of Smolensk, Andrei Borisov, from a social networking site posted together with a photo of two flagpoles – one with the Russian flag and the other – empty, with a ladder.
“I will express a general opinion. There can be no Polish flags at Russian cemeteries! And after the openly anti-Russian statements of Polish politicians – all the more so. I believe that the Ministry of Culture has made the only right decision – the flag of Poland should be taken down. Katyn is a Russian cemetery, it is Russian history”, Borisov wrote.
A spokesman for the minister coordinating the special services Stanisław Żaryn said that removing Polish flags from Polish war cemeteries is another act of Kremlin hostility and an element of the anti-Polish campaign which has been conducted for many years. In his opinion, the decisions of the Russian authorities prove that Poland is right to diagnose Russian actions as a policy of deliberate confrontation with Western countries.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński