Ukraine's embassy blames Russia for Warsaw monument graffiti, calls it bid to ‘sow hostility’ between Ukrainians, Poles
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Ukraine's Embassy in Poland condemned graffiti painted on two historic monuments in Warsaw on Nov. 15, calling the vandalism an act of Russian hybrid warfare aimed at fueling tensions between Ukrainians and Poles.
The Nov. 14 incident comes amid growing strains in Poland-Ukraine relations, despite Poland's role as one of Ukraine's key allies and its reception of millions of Ukrainian refugees since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. Disagreements over historical memory and the growing anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland have increasingly affected relations between the two countries.
Inscriptions reading "Slava UPA" ("Glory to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army"), painted in red, appeared on the Monument to the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto near the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Monument to soldiers of the First Polish Army in Warsaw's Muranow district, Polish broadcaster TVN24 reported on Nov. 14.
The UPA was at the center of a diplomatic spat earlier this year between Kyiv and Warsaw.
Ukraine's Embassy in Poland called the vandalism a Russian provocation, adding that its goal is to sow hostility between Ukrainians and Poles, undermine mutual trust, and weaken support for Ukraine.
"We believe this unlawful act is a manifestation of the hybrid warfare that Russia is attempting to wage by every means possible in European countries, particularly Poland," the Ukrainian embassy said in a statement.
The embassy urged Ukrainians living in Poland not to accept offers of "easy money" in exchange for painting graffiti, damaging property, or carrying out other illegal tasks.
"Ukrainian-Polish solidarity is our shared strength. Let us not allow the enemy to destroy it," the Ukrainian embassy said.
Warsaw police confirmed receiving reports of vandalism at both monuments and said they were investigating the incidents, TVN24 reported. The perpetrators have not yet been identified.
According to TVN24, the same inscription appeared on three monuments in another Polish city, Gdynia, earlier in November.
The diplomatic spat over UPA was triggered in May when President Volodymyr Zelensky named a military unit after it.
In Ukraine, UPA is remembered primarily for its fight for Ukrainian independence during and after World War II.
In Poland, the group is mainly remembered due to its role in the 1943-1945 Volyn massacres, a mass killing of tens of thousands of Poles in what is today western Ukraine, then under Nazi occupation. Thousands of Ukrainians were killed in retaliatory attacks.
Polish far-right politician Grzegorz Braun, on Sept. 10, published a video of himself damaging a memorial of the UPA in eastern Poland. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry on Sept. 11 sharply criticized the act, saying it could "elicit nothing but shame and condemnation from any normal human being."
