[imagesource: Getty]

Sergey Andreev, Russia’s ambassador to Poland, appeared yesterday at the Soviet Soldiers Cemetery in Warsaw.

He was there to lay flowers at the Soviet military cemetery on the anniversary of the allied victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

That’s sadly ironic, given the current situation in Ukraine, and it’s not a day that Andreev will remember with much fondness.

Anti-war activists in attendance, many carrying Ukrainian flags, flung red paint at him and chanted “fascists” and “murderers”.

Others wore white sheets smeared in red paint resembling blood, reports The Guardian:

Russia’s foreign ministry responded to the incident by demanding Warsaw organise a new wreath-laying ceremony immediately and saying Poland should “ensure complete protection against any provocations”…

The Polish interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski, tweeted: “The gathering of opponents of Russian aggression against Ukraine, where genocide takes place every day, was legal. The emotions of Ukrainian women participating in the demonstration, whose husbands courageously fight for the defence of the Motherland, are understandable.”

Polish authorities had warned Andreev against appearing but he went ahead anyway.

This was the result:

All sympathy dissipated the moment he said he was “proud of my country and my president”.

Let’s see another angle:

Andreev and his team left unharmed after being escorted away by police.

Perhaps they should have known they were not welcome when the words “Kill Putin” were found written in blue and yellow, the colours of the Ukrainian flag, on a monument at the cemetery.

[source:guardian]