Article author:
Reuters
Warsaw — Poland will send a protest memo to Russia after removing the Polish flag at the Katin Cemetery commemorating the Polish military officers killed by Soviet troops in 1940, the government said on Monday. ..
An estimated 22,000 officers and intellectuals were killed in Katin near Smolensk in western Russia, many were trucked from prison camps, shot in the head from behind and pushed into mass graves. ..
After decades of blaming Nazi Germany for the Katyn Massacre, the Soviet Union admitted in April 1990 that its troops were responsible, killing Russia and Poland. Cast a long shadow on the relationship.
The bodies of more than 4,000 Polish prisoners of war are buried in a cemetery run by Russian authorities.
On Friday, Smolensk Mayor Andrey Borisov released photos of the two masts. One has the Russian flag and the other is empty with a ladder leaning against it.
"There can be no Polish flag on the Russian monument! ... I think the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation has made the only correct decision-to remove the Polish flag. Katin is the Russian monument. And it's the history of Russia, "Bolisov wrote.
This move further exacerbates relations between the two countries after Poland's leading role in opposition to the war in Ukraine.
"Currently, a (diplomatic) memo is being written and submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz told Polish public radio on Monday.
"We try to intervene at the political level, but ... I don't have too much optimism about the actions of the Russian side. The Russian side is quite active in foreign policy." rice field.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to the request for comments sent by e-mail. (Report by Anna Koper, edited by Alison Williams)
