The Polish Foreign Ministry summoned Russian ambassador Sergei Andreyev on December 27 to protest after Putin accused the country of colluding with Hitler.

Poland expressed "strong opposition to historical allegations from the highest Russian state agencies in the last few days," Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz told the PAP news agency in Warsaw.

Speaking to leading military generals at the Ministry of Defense, Putin on December 24 accused Poland of "being in cahoots" with the Nazi leader during World War II. He said a wartime Polish ambassador was said to have promised to place a Hitler statue in Warsaw for his commitment to bringing Jews to Africa. Putin also criticized what he called an attempt to erase memories of Soviet victories in countries that were once under Moscow's sphere of influence.

Earlier, Putin blamed Western and Polish powers, pointing out the many treaties they signed with Nazi Germany before World War II began in 1939.

The Polish Foreign Ministry emphasized on December 27 that "Poland was the first country to join the armed resistance in September 1939 against the German army, then backed by the Soviet Union" and 6 million citizens. Poland, including three million Jews, died as a result of German invasion.

Poland added that Russia "was trying to alleviate part of the Soviet responsibility for destroying peace in Europe. The Soviet Union in 1939-1941 was an ally of Germany under Adolf Hitler".

Before Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union established the Molotov - Ribbentrop Treaty, including a secret protocol attached to Eastern Europe as a part of its territory. of Germany and the Soviet Union in the case of "political rearrangement of territory". The Soviet Union attacked Poland on September 17, 1939 and took part of the territory before Hitler launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union in 1941.