Ukraine should agree on new consulate general with Poznan authorities - Polish MFA
This was stated by Polish MFA spokesperson Paweł Wroński in a comment to Ukrinform.
“The MFA has no objections to the establishment of a new consulate general (of Ukraine – ed.) in Poznań. After all, the minister (Radosław Sikorski - ed.) spoke about it himself. This is a matter of coordination between the Poznan authorities, who own this property, and the Ukrainian authorities,” Wroński said.
He added that the Polish MFA strongly encourages Ukraine to establish a consular office in this city, as many Ukrainians live in Poznan.
According to him, if a Ukrainian consular office is established in Poznan, the Ukrainian side would have to agree with the local authorities on technical issues related to renting real estate and paying for it.
As reported, Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said in a comment to Ukrinform that Ukraine is interested in acquiring the building of the Russian Consulate General in Poznan, which is being vacated due to Warsaw's recognition of Russian diplomats in the city as undesirable and the closure of this consular office. He said that the Ukrainian MFA had sent an official note to the Polish side with a request and was awaiting specific details.
Recently, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski said that if Ukraine applied to use the real estate vacated by the Russians to open its own consular office in the city, Warsaw would treat it with ‘the greatest sympathy’. He noted that the lease agreement for this property expires in late November. By that time, the Russians will have to leave it completely. Sikorski stated that the current network of Ukrainian consulates is insufficient to meet the consular needs given the unprecedented growth in the number of Ukrainian citizens in Poland.
The Russian diplomatic staff from the Consulate General in Poznań, which was closed by the decision of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, left Poland before 30 November. The Polish government has revoked its consent for the Russian Consulate General in Poznań to continue its operations, citing its involvement in the preparation of acts of sabotage in Poland and other European countries. The Russian staff from the Consulate General in Poznań were designated as undesirable persons in Poland. The Russian side stated that it would respond to Warsaw's move and subsequently decided to close the Polish Consulate General in St. Petersburg.
There are currently five state consular offices of Ukraine in Poland: consulates general in Lublin, Krakow and Wroclaw, a consulate in Gdansk and a consular section in Warsaw. In addition, Ukraine has nine honorary consulates in Poland.
