Russia’s ambassador to Poland was hit in the face with red paint Monday during a protest against the war in Ukraine.
Sergey Andreev arrived at the Soviet Military Cemetery in Warsaw to lay a wreath honoring fallen Red Army soldiers on the 77th anniversary of the 1945 Soviet victory against Nazi Germany when several protesters shouted “fascists!” Andreev was then splashed with paint, which made his face appear bloodied.
Some officials in his entourage were also splattered.
Several hundred protesters were on the scene to demonstrate against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They snatched Andreev’s wreath, trampled other flowers and staged “die ins” to honor the dead in Ukraine. Many waved Ukrainian flags and wore white sheets splattered with red.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the incident and claimed the protest was the work of “admirers of neo-Nazism,” according to a translation by The Washington Post. The West has “set a course for the reincarnation of fascism,” Zakharova wrote in a post on the right-wing social media platform Telegram.
The Russian Embassy in Poland said in a Telegram post that it would file a formal protest about the incident.