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Graveyard of Soviet Soldiers vandalized in Poland’s Kielce

Five tombstones were overturned and three more broken at the cemetery

© Mikhail Rogozin/TASS, archive

WARSAW, August 9. /TASS/. The Graveyard of Soviet Soldiers in the Polish city of Kielce has been vandalized, the press service of the Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship told TASS on Tuesday.

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"We were informed by a representative of the mayor’s office yesterday that five tombstones were overturned and three more broken at the cemetery," spokesman for the Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship Damian Janus said. The police documented evidence at the crime scene, questioned eyewitnesses and is currently searching for vandals. Janus stressed that local authorities will promptly restore order at the cemetery and replace the broken tombstones.

"People do foolish things sometimes but this time they have crossed certain borders," Kielce Deputy Mayor Czeslaw Gruszewski said.

Monday’s act of vandalism is not the first case at the Graveyard of Soviet Soldiers in Kielce. In June, several unidentified persons moved tombstones and pulled out an information board.

The remains of Soviet soldiers who died around Kielce in battles with Nazis in 1945 are buried at the cemetery. The graveyard is often visited by the relatives of the fallen soldiers. Local authorities take care of the cemetery.

"We feel like those people (Soviet soldiers) deserved something," Onet news portal quoted Gruszewski as saying. "No one asked them to do this, they just took up arms and ousted the occupant. We take care of this cemetery with financial support from the government. We managed to fix the latest damages by ourselves, but this time we will have to ask the head of Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship for help," he added.

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