Russian embassy reports broken memorial plaques at Warsaw military cemetery

Memorial plaques on two mass graves at the Soviet military cemetery in Warsaw have been damaged, Russia’s embassy in Poland said.

The diplomatic mission said it discovered the damage while monitoring the cemetery on Zwirki i Wigury Street. The broken plaques bore the names of fallen Red Army soldiers.

The embassy protested to Polish authorities and demanded restoration of the damaged elements, identification of those responsible and measures to prevent further incidents.

It cited paragraph 1 of Article 3 of the Russian-Polish agreement on graves and memorial sites dated February 22, 1994. The embassy said the agreement provides for the preservation of graves, headstones and other memorial structures. The cemetery also appears in a joint burial-site catalogue published in 2003.

Appeals were sent to Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, its Foreign Ministry and the head of the Mazovian region.