Press Release, 16.12.2024

Photo: The basement of the memorial at the cemetery in the Borovichi district was destroyed with the use of construction equipment / Photo by Novgorod Yabloko

In the Novgorod region, unidentified persons destroyed four memorials at the burial sites of prisoners of war from the Second World War. In the village of Yogla and in the city of Borovichi (in Bobrovy Gory, Ust-Brynkino, and the area of ​​Lake Kryukovo) unidentified persons smashed the monuments, cut down the crosses and vandalized the basements of the monuments. Novgorod Yabloko appealed to the police and the Investigative Committee.

The memorial cemeteries are the burial places of German, Austrian, Hungarian, and Finnish prisoners of war and interned servicemen of the Polish Armia Krajowa. On 6 December, vandals destructed all four memorials. The scale of the destruction with the use of heavy construction equipment suggests their planning the action in advance.

The district authorities have not commented on the incident. Meanwhile, the Novgorod branch of Yabloko publicly calls the destruction of the memorials an act of vandalism and desecration of graves.

The Novgorod Yabloko activists met with Maxim Meleshev, the first deputy head of the Borovichsky District Administration, as well as with Police Colonel Sergei Grushin, the head of the Borovichsky Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

The Chair of the Novgorod Yabloko Anna Cherepanova asked the police chief to take personal control of the investigation of the crime. After this, the press service of the regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported the launch of an investigation into the information about the damage to memorial burials in the Borovichsky District.

In addition, former municipal deputy from Yabloko Oksana Sergeyeva filed a report of the crime with the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Novgorod Region.