Russia was behind the fire that completely destroyed a shopping centre in Warsaw last May, Poland has suggested.
Moscow has in the past denied involvement in alleged arson and sabotage operations across Europe.
“We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk claimed on X.
Tusk said some perpetrators have been detained, adding that others have been identified by the authorities. “We will get you all!” he vowed.
The fire broke out at the shopping centre, located in an industrial area on Warsaw’s northern edge, on 12 May, 2024. It burned down 1,400 shops, many of which were run by the city’s Vietnamese community.
Poland’s Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior Affairs said the attack was “organised and directed by a specific person residing in the Russian Federation” in a joint statement released on Sunday.
The ministries added that Polish authorities have been working in cooperation with their Lithuanian counterparts, given that a number of people allegedly involved in the Warsaw shopping centre attack reportedly carried out “acts of diversion” in Lithuania.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said on Monday that Poland would now close the Russian consulate in Krakow.
“In connection with evidence that it was Russian special services who committed the reprehensible act of sabotage against the shopping centre on Marywilska Street, I have decided to withdraw consent for the operation of the consulate of the Russian Federation in Krakow,” said Sikorski.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded by accusing Warsaw of “deliberately“ seeking to destroy relations between the two nations by “acting against its citizens”.
“An appropriate response to these inadequate steps will follow soon,” Zakharova told Russia’s state-owned news agency TASS.
