Controversial Polish politician boasts about smashing UPA monument with hammer – video

Grzegorz Braun, leader of the Confederation of the Polish Crown party, has damaged a monument to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in the village of Białystok in Poland. [The UPA was a nationalist paramilitary organisation that fought for Ukrainian independence during and after World War II, primarily against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union – ed.]

Source: European Pravda, citing a video posted on social media by Braun himself

Quote from Braun: "This matter should have been dealt with on the very first day after this structure – which, incidentally, is anonymous and unauthorised – was discovered by the relevant services, and not necessarily the special services. This obelisk, which insults the memory of the victims of the Ukrainian genocide against Poles, ought to be dismantled using professional equipment, which should be brought here as soon as the crime of justifying Nazism and Banderism has been documented."

Details: The video shows Braun using a hammer to obliterate the names of Ukrainians engraved on the stone.

The granite obelisk commemorates Ukrainians who were killed fighting against the Soviet NKVD. It stands in the village of Białystok, in the Dołhobyczów municipality (Hrubieszów County), where the Ukrainians were buried in 1946.

European Pravda has emphasised that the monument was erected directly above a mass grave. The memorial site has existed since the 1990s and has been in its current form – a stone engraved with the names of those killed – since 2019.

The obelisk has been vandalised several times. In the summer of 2026, it was spray-painted and an arch decorating the stone was cut away. The Ukrainian Embassy officially condemned the act of vandalism at the time.

The monument was vandalised again a few days ago, and police are searching for those responsible.

Background: In late August, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki said that the inclusion of figures such as Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych in Ukraine's National Pantheon would create major problems for the country's integration into the EU.

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