The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Polish authorities of trespassing on the grounds of a school belonging to the Russian embassy in Warsaw “with the aim of seizing it”.

“Such a brazen move by Warsaw, which violates civilised communication between states, will not remain without our harsh reaction and consequences for the Polish authorities and Polish interests in Russia. The initiators of such controversial, unlawful, and provocative undertakings need to understand this,” the ministry stated in a press release on Saturday.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti writes that representatives of the Warsaw mayor’s office, with the help of the police, broke down the gate to the school of the Russian embassy on Saturday morning. According to Andrey Ordash, the embassy’s envoy counsellor, these people have been walking around the school’s premises and taking stock of property. The school’s employees have been ordered to leave the premises before 7 PM.

Sergei Andreev, Russian ambassador to Poland, assured that the embassy will find another place for the school and ensure that the school year is finished and exams are taken as usual.

Łukasz Jasina, spokesman for the Polish Foreign Ministry, told Telewizja Polska that the school building was being used by the Russian embassy illegally. He added that it is the Warsaw mayor’s office that is responsible for the building’s expropriation while the foreign ministry is merely being informed of the process.

In early March 2022, Poland’s Foreign Ministry initiated the expropriation of two real estate assets that were “in unauthorised possession” of Russia and “not used for diplomatic purposes”. The assets in question included the middle school on Kielecka Street and a building on Sobieskiego Street.