Residents of Vilnius walk to the monument at the Antakalnis cemetery on May 9, 2021. Photo credit: Igor Zhurov / youtube.com
The Vilnius authorities have completed the demolition of the monument at the Antakalnis cemetery, RIA Novosti reports. The company that dismantled the monument said that the steles were taken to a warehouse where they would be stored. An empty pedestal was left at the burial, and future plans include cleaning up the area.
The day before, the authorities of Vilnius began to dismantle the monument installed on the largest burial place of Soviet soldiers. More than 3,000 people who died during the liberation of the city from the Nazi troops in 1944 are buried at the Antakalnis cemetery.
In Lithuania, they decided to ignore the opinion of not only the majority of the inhabitants of their country, but also the demand of the UN Human Rights Committee, which banned the dismantling of the monument, the Russian embassy recalled.
Russkiy Mir
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the demolition of the monument an example of lawlessness, which is gaining momentum in the modern world. According to the official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, “not only that they don’t need the UN, their conscience doesn’t bother them anymore.” This is a global problem, not just one country's problem, she said.
