The decision was announced by the spokeswoman for Warsaw City Hall, Monika Beuth, Polish state news agency PAP reported on Thursday.
Beuth told PAP: “We won’t be organising a New Year’s Eve event this year … There is an energy crisis and the first area to be affected by spending cuts is entertainment.”
Beuth added that, besides a shortage of funds, Warsaw’s decision had been motivated by "the situation in Ukraine."
She said: “There is a brutal, bloody, savage war taking place beyond our eastern border, in Ukraine, and people, civilians, are dying there every day. And so now is not the right atmosphere to organise such special, joyous events.”
Beuth called on residents not to use firecrackers and fireworks on New Year’s Eve.
She told PAP: “Above all, they frighten animals ... But this year, the use of firecrackers and fireworks may also evoke bad memories for our guests from Ukraine, of whom there are some 100,000 in Warsaw.”
Earlier this month, Warsaw City Hall issued an appeal to residents not to use fireworks on December 31, the PAP news agency reported.
Thursday is day 309 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, warszawainfo.pl