Russian Ambassador to Poland Georgy Mikhno said 474 of 561 Soviet military monuments on a bilateral list had been removed, citing embassy data. He said the remaining 87 were at risk.
Russian Ambassador to Poland Georgy Mikhno told RIA Novosti that, according to the embassy, Polish authorities had removed 474 of 561 military monuments on a 1997 bilateral list, excluding memorials at burial sites. He said the remaining 87 sites were at risk.
Mikhno cited recent removals in Pyrzyce and Rzeszów, as well as a monument in the section for Soviet soldiers and prisoners of war at a cemetery in Bytom. He also said a red star, plaque and parts of a fence had been removed from a mass grave memorial in Mikołów. The embassy, he said, had protested to Polish ministries and local authorities.
Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance confirmed the July 31 removal in Pyrzyce, describing the monument as a Soviet propaganda object. The institute said the town council acted under Poland’s law prohibiting the promotion of communism and planned to replace it with a monument to independence. TVP World reported that some elements of the dismantled monument in Rzeszów were to be preserved and transferred to a museum.