Poland‘s Foreign Ministry today announced the closure of a Russian consulate after Polish authorities yesterday Sunday accused Russian intelligence agencies of being behind a major fire that broke out in Warsaw last year and almost completely destroyed a shopping mall.

“Due to the evidence, according to which the Russian secret services committed an epic act of sabotage against the shopping center (…), I have decided to withdraw my consent to the operation of the consulate of the Russian Federation in Krakow,” Polish Foreign Minister Randoslaw Sikorski wrote on X.

For its part, Moscow criticized Warsaw’s decision and promised a “proportional response.”

“Warsaw continues to deliberately destroy relations, acting against the interests of its citizens (…) A proportional response to these non-proportional measures will soon follow,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, stressed.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Poland, a staunch ally of Kiev, has complained of being targeted by sabotage actions, which it says are coordinated by Russia.

Last May a fire almost completely destroyed a shopping mall in Varsovia, which housed 1,400 small shops owned mostly by members of the Vietnamese community.

Polish authorities immediately launched an investigation, but so far had avoided blaming Moscow.

“We now know, according to the evidence gathered, that the fire was the result of arson organised by the Russian secret services,” the Polish justice and interior ministries pointed out yesterday in a joint statement to X.

According to the statement, “some of the perpetrators are already in custody, others have been identified and are being sought.”

The Polish prime minister confirmed this information in a post on X yesterday.

Warsaw added that it is “cooperating with Lithuania where some of the perpetrators have engaged in diversionary activities.”

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland has arrested and convicted several individuals on charges of carrying out sabotage on behalf of Russia’s intelligence services.

In May 2024, Poland decided to impose restrictions on the movement of Russian diplomats on its territory due to Moscow’s “involvement” in “hybrid warfare.”

Five months later Warsaw called for the closure of the Russian consulate in Poznan, accusing Moscow of organizing “attempts at sabotage.”

In December, the Polish Foreign Ministry said it was ready to close all Russian consulates in the country if the “terrorist” acts continued.

In retaliation, Russia closed the Polish consulate in St. Petersburg in January.

In addition to the consulates in Krakow and Poznan, Russia has a consulate in Gdansk and an embassy in Warsaw.

In March Lithuanian prosecutors accused the Russian military’s intelligence service of organizing an arson attack on an IKEA store in Vilnius, which broke out three days before the shopping mall fire in Poland.

Russia has denied any involvement in those fires.