Poland to close last operating Russian consulate after rail sabotage incident

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has announced the closure of the Russian consulate in the city of Gdańsk on the Baltic coast, Russia’s last active consulate in the country, Polish Radio reported on Wednesday.

Sikorski said that his decision to “withdraw consent for the functioning of the Russian consulate in Gdańsk” was taken in response to an alleged Russian sabotage operation on Sunday in which a section of railway connecting the capital Warsaw to the city of Lublin, in the southeast of the country, was destroyed in an explosion.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday that the perpetrators were two Ukrainian nationals, working for Russian intelligence, who had crossed into the country from neighbouring Belarus before escaping back across the border after successfully detonating their explosives.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova responded that Moscow would “reduce Poland’s diplomatic and consular presence” in light of Warsaw’s decision. Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov also commented on the new development, saying “Relations with Poland have completely deteriorated. This reflects the Polish authorities’ desire to eliminate any possibility of consular or diplomatic relations”, state-affiliated news agency Interfax reported.

If proven to be an incident of Russian sabotage, it would mark a serious escalation against Poland, with Kremlin-orchestrated sabotage operations in the cities of Wrocław in October 2024 and Warsaw in May 2024 respectively cited as justification for the Polish government’s earlier decisions to close the Russian consulates in Poznań and Kraków.

In the past three months, the country has seen repeated invasions of its airspace by Russian drones as a fresh wave of Russia-linked hybrid activity has swept Europe this autumn. In an interview with Polish radio station Jedynka on Monday, Wiesław Kukuła, the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, said the incident was a sign the enemy was “starting to prepare for war”.