Poland’s ambassador to Russia was confronted and nearly assaulted in St. Petersburg over the weekend by a group of people protesting Warsaw’s support for Ukraine, Polish media reported Thursday.
Ambassador Krzysztof Krajewski was walking to the Catholic Church of St. Catherine on Sunday, where he was attending Independence Day events, when a crowd surrounded him and began shouting, according to the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.
A spokesman for Poland’s Foreign Ministry said members of the group then tried to push the confrontation into “physical aggression” before being stopped by officers from Poland’s State Protection Service.
Polish officials lodged a formal protest with the Russian chargé d’affaires in Warsaw on Wednesday, calling the episode “the most serious incident of its kind in many years.”
“Only the intervention of security guards prevented the ambassador from being beaten,” a ministry source told Polish media.
On Monday, local media outlets in St. Petersburg circulated video of several young men chasing after the ambassador, calling him a “terrorist” and waving banners accusing Poland of fueling the war in Ukraine.
The local broadcaster 78, which reported on the clash, blamed the ambassador’s security detail for the confrontation.
Exiled news outlet Agentstvo identified two of the men in the video as activists with Volunteer Company, a group linked to the youth wing of the ruling United Russia party. The organization has received state grants and has been involved in attempts to disrupt protests by the wives of mobilized Russian soldiers, according to Agentstvo.
The Moscow Times could not independently verify that report.
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