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Moscow calls for prompt investigation into vandalism at Red Army cemetery in Poland

Russian diplomats are working to eliminate the damage caused to the memorial.

© AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski

MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. Russia has called for investigating an act of vandalism at the cemetery of Soviet soldiers and prisoners of war in Gdansk, Poland, without delay and bringing those responsible to justice, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in in a statement on Thursday.

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"We insist on a prompt investigation into a scandalous incident and punishment for those responsible. We call on Poland to honor its international commitments and remember the moral duty to the memory of fallen heroes and war victims," the ministry noted.

Russian diplomats, in close cooperation with local officials, are working to eliminate the damage caused to the memorial.

The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed to direct correlation between acts of vandalism against Soviet-era monuments and graves of Red Army soldiers, which have become more frequent, and the Polish authorities’ attempts to rewrite the history of WWII and its outcomes. "The Gdansk incident is another link in a series of hooligans' attacks against our memorials and cemeteries in Poland, which we have seen in recent years. We believe such acts are an aftereffect of the destructive policy pursued by Warsaw, which seeks, under the ‘decommunization’ slogan, to eliminate anything that would serve as a reminder of its liberation by the Red Army at the end of World War II and change postwar history," the ministry stressed.

Media reports earlier said that unknown individuals damaged 23 metal stars on mass graves at the Gdansk cemetery where about 3,000 Soviet soldiers, civilians and prisoners of war are buried.

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