The Belarusian authorities have destroyed a Polish war grave containing the remains of four underground resistance soldiers killed by the Germans in 1943.
The destruction of the grave, located in the village Plebanishki near Grodno, was reported by Mostmedia, an independent Belarusian news site which cited the Union of Poles in Belarus (ZPB).
A memorial cross marking the site, founded in the 1990s by a native of the village then residing in Gdańsk, was also taken down.
The act is the latest in a series of incidents in recent months that have seen Polish war graves bulldozed by the Belarusian authorities.
Responding to the attack on the grave, the Polish Foreign Ministry called it “bestial” and a violation of agreements struck between Poland and Belarus on the protection of memorial sites.
A spokesperson for the Polish Foreign Ministry said inquiries into the incident were underway.
“We are investigating this. Unfortunately, both dead and living Poles continue to be victimised by the dictator Alexander Lukashenko,” said the spokesperson.
The four buried soldiers, three men and a woman, were members of Poland’s underground Home Army (AK), the largest underground resistance force in German-occupied Europe.