RUSSIA accused Poland of making a “mockery of history” today after Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna said it was Ukrainians and not the Red Army that freed Auschwitz.

The 70th anniversary of the liberation of the nazis’ largest death camp falls on Tuesday — but Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been invited.

It is particularly offensive since the Soviet armed forces freed the camp and many of the more than a million people killed there were Soviet citizens.

On Wednesday a Polish journalist questioned the “pettiness” of the decision not to invite Mr Putin given that “the Red Army freed Auschwitz.”

But Mr Schetyna replied that it would be better to say “Ukrainians liberated it because Ukrainian soldiers were there.”

Moscow said the Polish minister had “insulted the memory of those who died liberating Europe from Hitler.”