Poland investigates destruction of UPA monument by notorious politician, but no charges filed

Polish prosecutors are investigating the vandalism of a monument and burial site for fighters from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) killed in a battle with the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) in 1946 in the village of Białystok in Hrubieszów County, but no charges have been filed against anyone.

Source: Polish news portal RMF24, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The Hrubieszów District Prosecutor's Office is investigating the destruction of a monument and burial site of 41 UPA fighters in the village of Białystok.

MEP Grzegorz Braun posted a video showing him and other people striking the stone obelisk with a heavy tool.

The preliminary proceedings concern "insulting a group of Ukrainian ethnicity by damaging the resting place of people who died in battle with NKVD officers" in the village of Białystok in the Dołhobyczów municipality.

Prosecutor Rafał Kawalec, spokesperson for the Zamość District Prosecutor's Office, said investigators had seized the video recording of the incident and questioned witnesses.

The spokesperson added that no one had been charged. He did not rule out that, if necessary, proceedings could be launched to lift parliamentary immunity.

The granite obelisk commemorates Ukrainians who were killed in battles against the Soviet NKVD. It stands in the village of Białystok, in the Dołhobyczów municipality (Hrubieszów County), where the Ukrainians who were killed were buried in 1946. The monument was erected directly at the site of a mass grave.

The memorial site has existed since the 1990s and has been in its current form – a stone bearing the engraved names of those killed – since 2019. The obelisk has been vandalised several times. In the summer of 2026, it was spray-painted and an arch decorating the stone was cut away. The Ukrainian Embassy formally condemned the act of vandalism at the time.

The Lublin Voivodeship Office explained that the grave of UPA members located in the Dołhobyczów municipality is not listed in the register of war graves and cemeteries maintained by the voivode.

Background:

• Commenting on the latest incident, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that "political fringe figures in Poland could think of nothing better than waging war on graves".
• The monument was also vandalised on 6 September, and police are searching for those involved.

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