Poland comments on Ukraine's plans to open new consulates
Paweł Wroński, spokesperson for the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told this to Ukrinform, when commenting on the announcement made by Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha on Friday in the Ukrainian parliament about plans to open two new consular offices of Ukraine in Poland - in Poznan and Rzeszow.
“We are in favor of Ukrainian citizens having the widest possible consular care (in Poland - ed.). So I don't think there will be any problems in this regard,” Wroński said.
He added that the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Poland and Ukraine have already corresponded about opening a consular office in Poznan. At the same time, as soon as a similar proposal for a consular office in Rzeszów is received, the Polish side will immediately provide its response.
Wroński recalled that the Polish MFA has agreed to open a Ukrainian consulate in Poznan, and now it is a matter of coordination between the Ukrainian MFA and local authorities in Poznan.
As reported, in late November, 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. Prior to that, 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’.
Later, the Polish MFA said that Kyiv must resolve the issue of the possible functioning of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Poznan with the city authorities.
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.
Photo: Michal Zebrowski/East News
