Kremlin calls Poland’s decision to rename Kaliningrad a ‘hostile act’

Russian city will now be known as Królewiec in official documents, its name in the 15th and 16th centuries

The Kremlin has described Poland’s decision to rename the Russian city of Kaliningrad in its official documents as a “hostile act”, as ties continue to fray over the Ukraine war.

Kaliningrad, which sits in an exclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic coast, was known by the German name of Köenigsberg until after the second world war, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union and renamed to honour politician Mikhail Kalinin.