Poznań police investigate provocative graffiti on three monuments

Report of damage

On Thursday, 5 November, police learned of the appearance of a provocative inscription on the Armii Poznań monument, located near Kutrzeby Street. In total, such inscriptions were found on three monuments: two of them are in Cytadela Park, and the third is on the aforementioned Armii Poznań monument.

Site cleaning situation

It is known that the inscription on one of the monuments has already been painted over. This action was carried out not by the municipal service ZZM, which is responsible for maintaining the area, but by an unknown person. Representatives of the ZZM service are currently refraining from further cleaning, awaiting the completion of police investigative actions.

Expert assessment

Political scientists call these incidents a Russian provocation, although the specific perpetrator has not yet been identified. Professor Krzysztof Fedorowicz from Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM) believes that the aim of such actions is to try to convince Polish society that the war does not concern their country, so that Poland stops helping Ukraine.

Version on the instigators and perpetrators

Expert Michal Marek from the state institute NASK notes that the author of the inscription could be a Polish citizen. The argument for this is that the text is written in Latin script, not Cyrillic. According to Marek, similar actions are often ordered by Russian special services through social networks, for example, Telegram, and perpetrators are usually paid a reward in cryptocurrency. The expert adds that the number of such cases is increasing, and leaflets may also appear on the streets.

«До таких речей потрібно ставитися спокійно: вони не виражають загальної думки» ("One needs to treat such things calmly: they do not represent public opinion"), Michal Marek emphasises.

Currently, police continue to search for the person responsible for committing the vandalism.