Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

15:30:49
27/04/2017

varjag2007su.livejournal.com

Polish nationalists dismantled a monument to UPA fighters established 23 years ago by the Ukrainian diaspora at the cemetery in the village Groszowice near Peremyshl. This was reported by the local Portalprzemyski website.

According to the website, the monument was illegally erected, and the city authorities approved its demolition.

“It never was a monument, it was an illegal construction, it threatens the lives of people, the fact that we could remove it testifies to this. We had to remove it for aesthetic reasons, such was the will of most people here, and I think not only in our society, but also of all Poles,” stated the mayor of Stubno Janusz Słabicki.

He added that fragments of the destroyed monument will be distributed to everyone who needs it for construction.

Ukrainian members of the “diaspora” already expressed their indignation. They consider that the monument, which was repeatedly previously profaned by the Polish nationalists was demolished in response to Kiev’s intention to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Operation “Vistula” — the deportation after World War II in Poland of 140,000 Ukrainians from the border with the USSR, in order to liquidate the Banderist underground.

The Association of Ukrainians in Poland declared a protest concerning the demolition of the monument to fighters of UPA.