Ukraine urges Poland to respond to damaged UPA monument
Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has commented on an incident in Poland in which Grzegorz Braun, leader of the Confederation of the Polish Crown party, damaged a monument to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in the village of Białystok in Poland, calling on the Polish authorities to give the actions a proper legal assessment and restore the grave.
"Political fringe elements in Poland could think of nothing better than waging war on graves... At a time when a real war is under way, posing an existential threat to both Ukraine and Poland. This is shameful and immoral behaviour that can evoke nothing but shame and condemnation in any normal person," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry stated.
The ministry said that Ukraine expects the competent Polish authorities to give these actions a proper legal assessment, restore the damaged grave and other Ukrainian memorial sites in Poland and prevent similar incidents in the future.
"Ukraine consistently supports 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 memory and respect for the dead into a circus performance for their own political purposes," the ministry added.
On 10 September, Braun posted a video showing how he is damaging the UPA monument in the village of Białystok in Hrubieszów County, Lublin Voivodeship.
The granite obelisk commemorates Ukrainians who were killed in battles against the Soviet NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs). It stands in the village of Białystok, in the Dołhobyczów municipality (Hrubieszów County), where the Ukrainians who were killed were buried in 1946.
The obelisk has been vandalised several times. In the summer of 2026, it was spray-painted and an arch decorating the stone was cut away. The Ukrainian Embassy formally condemned the act of vandalism at the time.
On 7 September, the monument was damaged again by unknown individuals.