ISTANBUL

Russia on Sunday promised a harsh response to the seizure of its embassy school in Warsaw, Poland by local authorities.

Warsaw will get a response and work in this regard has begun, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian TV channel Rossiya-1.

Zakharova said the school is moving to a new building, and the process that could take several days.

Polish police broke the doors of the school of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw on Saturday, blocked the exits, and gave people until 7 p.m. local time (1700GMT) to leave the premises.

Russia says Poland's "hostile actions" are a "blatant violation" of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, and encroachment on Russian diplomatic property.

In a separate statement on Telegram, Zakharova had qualified the actions of the Polish authorities as “provocation.”

Ties between Moscow and Warsaw, one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies, have further deteriorated since the war in Ukraine.