Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski announced on Wednesday that the monument to murdered Polish prisoners of war in Mednoye had been desecrated. „This is an unacceptable interference by Russia in historical truth; we will defend the crosses removed from gravestones,” said the head of diplomacy.

The situation regards a burial site of victims of the Katyń massacre buried at the Polish War Cemetery in Mednoye, Russia.

„Regrettably, the monument to the murdered Polish prisoners of war in Mednoye has been vandalised. The Virtuti Militari Cross and the Cross of the Defence War of 1939 have been removed from the gravestone. This was not the act of vandals — it was carried out by the cemetery complex authorities on the orders of the local prosecutor’s office. Therefore, on the orders of the Russian state,” Minister Sikorski said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared on Wednesday that it is demanding the immediate restoration of the original state of the War Cemetery in Mednoye by the Russian side. The issue concerns the desecration of a Polish monument, from which the bas-reliefs of the Virtuti Militari War Cross and the September 1939 Campaign Cross were chiselled off.

„The Ministry of Foreign Affairs received the information from the Polish Embassy in Moscow regarding the desecration of the Polish monument at the War Cemetery in Mednoye. We strongly demand that the Russian side immediately restore the cemetery to its original condition,” the ministry said in a statement published on its website.

According to the Ministry, information about the current condition of the cemetery was provided to the Polish diplomatic mission by representatives of the local Catholic clergy and the Polish diaspora.

In a statement sent to the Polish Press Agency (PAP) on Thursday, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance strongly condemned „the outrageous act of desecration committed by the authorities of the Russian Federation against the Polish War Cemetery in Mednoye.” 

It stressed that this was „not only an act of vandalism sanctioned by the Russian authorities, but also a brutal blow to the memory of the Polish victims of the Katyń Massacre.”

The Institute also highlighted that, as a body which for years has documented and studied the Katyń Massacre, promoted awareness of it, and worked towards international recognition of the historical truth, it cannot remain indifferent in the face of such aggression. 

„At the same time, the IPN firmly opposes attempts to instrumentally use our institution in current political disputes, as reflected in recent statements by senior representatives of the Polish government,” the statement added.

The Institute of National Remembrance reaffirmed that it „is ready to fully cooperate with the relevant Polish state authorities, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to prevent similar incidents in the future and to ensure the damage is remedied.” 

It concluded by stating: „The memory of the victims of Katyń demands dignity, responsibility, and collective action — not short-sighted accusations that blur the accountability of state institutions and risk being exploited by anti-Polish Russian propaganda.”

The Polish Cemetery in Mednoye was opened and consecrated on 2 September 2000. It is the resting place of over 6,300 Polish prisoners from the NKVD special camp in Ostashkov, who in 1939 defended Poland against Soviet aggression and were later murdered in the Katyń Massacre. 

Among them were mainly officers of the State Police and the Silesian Voivodeship Police, the Border Guard and Prison Guard, soldiers and officers of the Border Protection Corps, and members of other military formations, as well as officials of the state administration and judiciary of the Second Polish Republic.

Source: PAP

Photo: IPN

Tomasz Modrzejewski