Poland orders closure of Russian consulate in Krakow

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Monday, May 12, 2025

12/05/2025

A fire burns from a vast shopping complex in Warsaw, Poland on May 12, 2024. (AP)

WARSAW, Poland, May 12, (AP): Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said Monday that he was ordering the closure of Russia’s consulate in the southern city of Krakow after Polish authorities said Russia was responsible for a fire that destroyed a shopping center in Warsaw last year.

"In connection with the evidence that the Russian special services committed a reprehensible act of sabotage against the shopping center on Marywilska Street, I have decided to withdraw my consent to the operation of the consulate of the Russian Federation in Krakow,” Sikorski said in a statement.

The fire broke out May 12, 2024, in the Marywilska 44 shopping center that housed some 1,400 shops and service points. Many of the vendors were from Vietnam, and it inflicted tragedy on many in Warsaw’s Vietnamese community.