Police Investigate Grave Desecration of Fallen Ukrainian Defenders

Police are establishing the circumstances of the desecration of the graves of fallen Ukrainian defenders in Odesa region.

This was reported by the press service of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Odesa Oblast.

The incident took place at a cemetery in one of the villages of the Kurisovskaya united community of the Berezovsky district. It was reported to the police by the head of the community on February 16 in the morning. Law enforcement officers found that unknown persons had damaged memorial portraits on the graves of two Ukrainian soldiers. Officers of the territorial police unit were working at the scene. A set of operational measures is being taken to identify the offenders.

Earlier, police detained a resident of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi for desecrating the grave of a serviceman. A few days ago, a local citizen reported to the police that an unknown person had torn the state flag of Ukraine from a flagpole installed on the grave of a serviceman at a cemetery in the district center, thus desecrating the defender's grave.

Arriving at the scene, the police quickly established that a 41-year-old man previously convicted of robbery, who lives near the cemetery, was involved in the incident.

Law enforcement officers found out that the offender had no hostile relations with the deceased during his lifetime or with his family. He did it for fun while being intoxicated.

According to Pavlo Bobchynskyi, Head of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District Police Department, investigators detained the offender in accordance with Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine and, having collected sufficient evidence, notified him of suspicion of desecration of the grave of a person who defended the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and participated in the implementation of measures to ensure national security and defense, repulsion and deterrence of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, committed for hooliganism.

According to Article 297(3) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, this crime is punishable by up to seven years in prison. The court imposed on the suspect a measure of restraint in the form of round-the-clock house arrest.

Кирило Бойко