Ukraine tensions keep Putin away from Auschwitz anniversary

WARSAW - Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to join world leaders gathering at the site of the Auschwitz death camp this month because distrust caused by the conflict in Ukraine has cast a pall on arrangements to commemorate the Holocaust.

Host country Poland - one of the most vociferous critics of Moscow over the Ukraine crisis - did not send a full diplomatic invitation to Putin, wary of the domestic political consequences of inviting the Russian leader, according to sources briefed on arrangements for the Jan. 27 event.

Moscow, in turn, was upset by what it viewed as a slight by Warsaw and has therefore not made plans for the president to attend, said the sources, who declined to be named due to the diplomatic sensitivity of the matter.