The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland has filed a note of protest with the Ukrainian side over the Polish flag burnt in front of the Polish Embassy’s building in Kyiv on Monday, April 2.
“In connection with the act in front of the Polish Embassy in Kyiv on April 2, during which the Polish flag was burned, the Deputy Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland and was given a note of protest,” the Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website on April 3.
In particular, the Polish Foreign Ministry expressed outrage at the demonstrative behavior of protesters and the lack of a proper response from Ukrainian law enforcers.
The Polish Foreign Ministry expressed concern over another anti-Polish incident in the territory of Ukraine.
In his turn, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin called the incident an attack on the Ukrainian-Polish friendship and another act of provocation.
“I strongly condemn the act of provocation in front of the Polish Embassy in Kyiv, which is nothing more than a provocation, an insidious attack on our friendship. People who have a warm heart will never scoff at the symbols of other nations,” he wrote on Twitter on April 3.
Meanwhile, head of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv Andriy Kryshchenko told Interfax-Ukraine that the police on April 2 received a call that a group of unknown people (from five to seven persons) came up to the Polish embassy’s building, hiding their faces, and burned the Polish flag there.
According to Kryshchenko, police officers arrived at the scene after the call, but the people had already disappeared by that time.
“This action was unauthorized. The people did not have any distinctive signs [relation to any public or political organizations]. There were no slogans either. The police opened criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Article 266 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (hooliganism, committed by a group of people),” he said.
