The Russian ambassador to Poland was "urgently" summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Saturday following statements by Vladimir Putin the previous day that Warsaw has described as "provocative".
On Friday, the Russian president accused Poland of having “revanchist plans” by wanting to reclaim territories in western Ukraine, a recurring allegation by the Russian authorities.
During a meeting of the National Security Council on Friday, Putin further maintained that the western regions of present-day Poland were “a gift from Stalin” to the Poles at the end of the Second World War.
The summoning of the Russian Ambassador follows "provocative statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as threats and other unfriendly actions by the Russian Federation towards Poland and our allies," said Polish Deputy Minister Pawel Jablonski.
Credit: Belga
"The borders between countries are absolutely untouchable and Poland is opposed to any revision of them," Jablonski said.
On Friday evening, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki responded to Putin on Twitter, repeating that “Stalin was a war criminal, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Poles” during and after the Second World War.
According to Jablonski, Putin's words are "an attempt to whitewash the war criminal that was Stalin by another war criminal that is Putin today."
Following agreements taken in 1945 by the major powers at the end of the world war, Poland's borders were moved 300 km westwards, compared with the pre-war map.
The Soviet Union retained the Polish territories it had annexed in 1939, while Poland benefited from the addition of some regions that had belonged to Germany.
