Ukraine probing attack on Polish consulate

KIEV, Ukraine –Ukraine on Wednesday, March 29,  said it was investigating an attack that damaged a Polish consulate in the country’s west, an incident which both nations branded a “provocation.”

An explosion thought to have been caused by “a shot from a grenade launcher” hit the fourth floor of Poland’s consulate general in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk overnight, Ukraine’s security service (SBU) said.

The SBU said it was probing several causes, including a “terrorist act.” The attack damaged the building’s roof and windows but no one was injured.

Ukrainian and Polish authorities pointed the finger of blame at Moscow, which Kiev has accused of fuelling an pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. 

“I am outraged by this act of provocation against the Polish general consulate in Lutsk,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin wrote on Twitter.

“This is villainy by those who are against our friendship with Poland.”

The SBU meanwhile said “provocations” against Poland that occasionally occur in Ukraine “benefit only one side: the Russian Federation.”

Pawel Soloch, Poland’s top security official, was quoted as saying by PAP news agency that the incident was “undoubtedly a provocation.”

“The question is to know who did it and what was the goal. The context is known: Russian aggression against Ukraine,” PAP quoted Soloch as saying.  

Ukraine and its neighbour Poland have fostered close ties.

Warsaw was a firm supporter of Kiev after the ouster of a pro-Russian president set off Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and a Russian-backed insurgency in the east of the country.

But in recent months there has been renewed tension over historical disputes, including the war-time killing of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists.

In January, Ukraine officials vowed to investigate after unknown assailants painted Nazi graffiti around a cemetery that holds the remains of Polish officers shot by the Soviet secret police. – Rappler.com