MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia urged Poland to stop the destruction of Soviet monuments in the country, registering its protest, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.
"The Foreign Ministry lodges a strong protest and demands the Polish government to stop this outrage…to end the demolition of Soviet monuments, to guarantee their safety and to find and punish those responsible for the desecration of the monuments," Zakharova said.
She added that Moscow insisted on the implementation of the Russian-Polish bilateral agreement on burial sites and sites dedicated to the memory of victims of war and political repressions, signed in 1994.
Since 2014 the Russian Foreign Ministry has been calling on Poland to prevent cases of desecration and unauthorized relocation of Soviet monuments and graves, pointing out that over 600,000 Soviet soldiers died liberating Poland from Nazi forces during World War II.
The monument in Pieniezno was constructed in the beginning of the 1970s in honor of Chernyakhovsky, who died in the town in 1945 during the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany.
