Russian ambassador summoned by Poland's MFA over Putin's illegal annexation of Ukrainian lands

The information regarding Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreev being summoned to Poland's MFA was released on Monday morning by Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz, who told TVN24 the decision was made in response to the recent decisions taken by the Kremlin.

On Friday (September 30) Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions: Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia. The decision was preceeded by illegal referenda carried out in said regions by Russian authorities on September 23-27.

Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday condemned in the strongest terms the illegal acts of "recognition of independence" and "incorporation" into the Russian Federation of parts of Ukraine’s regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

"Today the ambassadors of the Russian Federation are being summoned in the European Union countries. We have also summoned Mr Ambassador to express our standpoint regarding President Vladimir Putin's illegal decisions (and) the also illegal annexation of Ukraine's territories, but also on what has been happening for some time now, but happened particularly strongly last week," Polish MFA spokesperson Łukasz Jasina told reporters after Andreev's visit.

He explained he was referring to the Russian Federation formulating "threats against the global peace, also against our country".

"We recommend that Polish citizens, who remain on the territory of the Russian Federation, with all available means and as soon as possible, leave the Russian Federation's territory and return to Poland," Jasina stressed.

After his visit to the ministry, Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreev was asked about Putin's pseudo-referenda in Ukraine. To a remark that the referenda carried out on Ukrainian lands had been illegal, he replied: "That's your opinion, we think the opposite. Today and tomorrow we will ratify (the annexation - edit.) of these four former Ukrainian regions".

"They will remain the territory of the Russian Federation forever," he added.

Andreev also argued that Russia "by no means violated the law". "This is an act of self-determination of the people of these territories, which the Russian Federation fully supports," Russian ambassador said.