Poland to shut Russian consulate after blaming Kremlin spies for arson attack on Warsaw mall

Russia’s intelligence services were behind a blaze last year that destroyed one of Warsaw’s largest shopping centres, the Polish prime minister Donald Tusk announced on Sunday, as the Polish government moved to shut down a Russian consulate in retaliation.

“We already know for sure that the big fire on Marywilska was the result of arson ordered by Russian services. The actions were coordinated by a person staying in Russia. Some of the perpetrators are already in custody, the rest have been identified and are wanted. We will catch them all!” Tusk wrote on social media.

The country’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorsky, added that due to the evidence Russia was behind the attack he was withdrawing his consent for Russia to continue to operate its consulate in the southern city of Krakow, meaning the facility will be forced to close.

Polish officials, who are cooperating with Lithuanian authorities investigating similar attacks, described the incident as part of an ongoing sabotage campaign being directed by the Kremlin. It comes as Poland's top cyber official warned that Russia was waging an “unprecedented” effort to disrupt the country’s upcoming presidential election through disinformation and hybrid cyberattacks.

Security agencies and governments across the continent warned last year about these threats, while NATO and the European Union have both condemned “intensifying” Russian sabotage and hybrid operations.

It follows the head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre issuing a warning last week that the United Kingdom’s intelligence services were seeing a “direct connection between Russian cyber attacks and physical threats to our security.”

Last month, British police announced the arrest of a Romanian man suspected of assisting Russia’s military intelligence agency in a plot that involved an incendiary device detonating at a DHL logistics warehouse in Birmingham.

Russia is believed to have been behind a July 2024 blaze that also affected the DHL logistics chain in Leipzig, Germany. If that parcel bomb bound for the U.K. had detonated aboard a flight it could have caused a plane crash, German security services said. 

A third incident took place in July near Warsaw, the capital of Poland. As reported by Reuters, the attempts are believed to be a “dry run” for a future plot in which Russia detonates incendiary devices in midair on transatlantic cargo flights to the United States and Canada.

The devices were reportedly disguised as massage machines from Lithuania and contained a magnesium-based substance which could have burned so destructively that an aircraft would have crashed.

In November, Kęstutis Budrys, the chief national security adviser to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, blamed Russia’s military intelligence agency, known as the GRU, for the plots. Other Western security officials have agreed with this assessment, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

That allegation came as the Polish National Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the arrests in July of four people over parcels containing concealed explosives that it said were believed to be test runs before an attack on flights bound for the U.S. and Canada. Another man, who is suspected of posting the parcels in Lithuania, was arrested in September.