As of July 14, there is no information on the site of the City Police Headquarters in Gdańsk, Poland, about progress in the investigation into the act of vandalism in which the Heroic Mariupol Square sign was damaged near the Russian Consulate.
In June, the Gdansk City Council took a unanimous decision to give the place at the intersection of Partyzantów and Matki Polki Streets near the Russian Consulate the name of Heroic Mariupol, and the sign was unveiled on July 1. In a few days, an unidentified person or persons painted over the words “Heroic Mariupol” on one side of the sign with black paint. Employees of the Gdańsk Road and Greenery Authority tried to remove the paint with usual cleaning agents, but to no avail, so they dismantled the board to try to apply more specialized means in a workshop.
Certainly, this crime should be taken seriously, and not only because the feelings of Ukrainians, as well as Poles who do their best to support both Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees, are hurt. There are persons in Gdańsk – so close to Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast! – who support the Kremlin’s atrocities in Ukraine, and there should be no doubt that they would support the same in Poland if given a chance.
Still, their identities are not known, and it might turn out that they are just from the state across the border from Gdańsk.
UWC has been consistently condemning such vandalism, seeing it as part of a global and coordinated anti-Ukrainian operation that aims at sowing discord between Ukrainians their allies and within our global communities.
The sign board after the attempt to clean it on-site / Gdańsk Road and Greenery Authority
