A Ukrainian man will stand trial in Poland for graffiti featuring UPA and Bandera symbols
In Poland, an indictment has been filed against 18-year-old Ukrainian citizen Ilya K. He is accused of making graffiti that allegedly glorified the UPA and Stepan Bandera, as well as carrying out tasks that, according to investigators, he received from Russian intelligence services.
According to Polish law enforcement, the young man may have been involved in sabotage activities and carrying out subversive missions within the country.
According to him, the 18-year-old Ukrainian was detained by officers of the Internal Security Agency (ABW).
Dobrzyński noted that, on behalf of Russian intelligence services, the young Ukrainian had placed inscriptions glorifying the UPA and Stepan Bandera on buildings and memorial sites, including the Monument to the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Monument to the Volhynia Tragedy, inscriptions glorifying the UPA and Stepan Bandera.
The 18-year-old wrote the words “Glory to the UPA” in Ukrainian on the monuments and drew a red-and-black flag.
“Officers from the Internal Security Agency and investigators from the National Prosecutor’s Office have gathered evidence regarding as many as 47 such crimes,” the spokesperson added.
The Internal Security Agency reported that the defendant has also been charged with preparing to carry out sabotage using an unmanned aerial vehicle.
The National Prosecutor’s Office stated that “45 of the charges relate to the placement of inscriptions and symbols glorifying the activities of the UPA on building facades and at memorial sites.”
As the agency added, the actions of the defendant and his instigators, carried out on behalf of foreign intelligence services, were intended to incite ethnic hatred, deepen antagonisms between Poles and Ukrainians, and cause public unrest.
It was noted that the defendant acted out of financial, rather than ideological, motives.
The Ukrainian faces a sentence ranging from 10 years in prison to life imprisonment.
Investigators also uncovered a scheme for recruiting operatives via internet messaging apps and financing their criminal activities by paying them in cryptocurrency through foreign exchanges registered in the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China.
It is also worth noting that a bill has been submitted to the Polish Sejm proposing the addition of the following sentence to the article providing for imprisonment for up to 3 years for the propaganda of totalitarianism and incitement to hatred: “The same punishment shall apply to anyone who publicly promotes… the ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—the Bandera faction and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army—or an ideology that calls for the use of violence to influence political or social life.”
This was reported by Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesperson for the Minister-Coordinator of Special Services, as quoted by Polsat News.
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