Ukraine's Foreign Ministry expects Poland's competent authorities to conduct a proper legal assessment of the destruction of a monument to Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) fighters in Dolhobyczów, Hrubieszów County, Lublin Voivodeship, restore the damaged grave, and prevent similar incidents in the future, the ministry told Interfax-Ukraine.
"Political fringe figures in Poland couldn't come up with anything better than to wage war on graves, at a time of a real war that poses an existential threat to both Ukraine and Poland," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry called such actions "disgraceful and immoral conduct" that, in its assessment, can evoke nothing but shame and condemnation.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry also expects Polish authorities to restore the damaged grave and other Ukrainian memorial sites in Poland, and to prevent similar cases in the future.
"Ukraine consistently advocates the same principle on both sides of the border: Ukrainian memorial sites in Poland and Polish memorial sites in Ukraine must be protected. No one has the right to turn remembrance and respect for the dead into a circus show for their own political ends," the ministry said.
The case concerns the destruction of a monument at the Bilostotske site in the Dolhobyczów commune, Hrubieszów County, Lublin Voivodeship. The monument stands directly on a mass grave of Ukrainians killed in fighting against the NKVD in 1946.
On September 10, European Parliament member Grzegorz Braun posted a video on social media showing himself, along with another member of his party, a former police officer, destroying the obelisk with axes and hammers. Polish police have been investigating the monument's destruction since September 6.
In his post, Braun said the UPA monument should be removed, calling it, in his view, an insult to the memory of Ukrainians' Polish victims, and called for the monument to be dismantled.
