”There was a row after the accident,” the ministry explained.

”The separatists shot the Pole, who was then taken to a hospital in Kharkiv.

”Unfortunately, from the very outset doctors gave little chance of survival.”

According to a Polish website kresy.24, which specialises in Poland’s borderland regions, the victim was named Kazimierz Wrobel, and he lived with his family in eastern Ukraine.

The site claimed that the man was not involved in the armed conflict in any capacity.

He is the first Pole to die in the conflict to date.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministry has reiterated its advice to ethnic Poles to leave the region.

Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said in Prague on Monday that ”Poland is interested in solving the armed conflict of our eastern neighbours,” but that Warsaw ”has not changed its views on sanctions imposed on Russia.”