Russian Embassy in Poland decides not to go ahead with scheduled Victory Day march

The Russian Embassy in Poland has planned not to go ahead with the scheduled Victory Day march on Monday following city authorities, and the Polish foreign ministry has criticised the step. The Embassy has made an announcement via its website.

The Embassy has decided to place a garland at the Soviet Military Cemetery in Warsaw & organise a march on the city’s streets as part of the Russian Federation’s “Immortal Regiment” campaign, a massive civil event staged in major cities in Russia and around the world on May 9.

However, the Polish foreign ministry has declined to favour the Russian plans & “did not recommend” executing them, the Embassy stated on its official website. As per the statement, the ministry has shown concerns that the march “would allegedly be involved with the special operations in Ukraine and be against the criminal code of Poland.”

The announcement further mentioned that, “Russia considers such understanding of our traditional Victory Day ceremonies absurd and unfounded.”

The Russian Embassy still went ahead with its plans to put a wreath at the Soviet Cemetery but planned to give up on the march, explaining that the city authorities would be incapable of providing safety to its participants, both Polish and Russian citizens.

After getting aware that the Embassy had asked the foreign ministry for support in securing the march, the Mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski from the opposition Civic Platform has sent a letter to Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau calling on the government “not to let that happen.”

He further took it to Twitter, “No Polish public institution should support “initiative like this one.”

In response, Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said his ministry had received the letter “with wonder” as it “did not plan to give its support to the Embassy of the Russian Federation and will not provide such support.” He mentioned that the ministry had sent a negative reply to the Russian Embassy’s request.