Sława UPA slogans daubed on at least 11 Polish memorials, Telegram ads offered pay

Monuments defaced in four cities

In the days before 10 November, unknown perpetrators daubed the words "Sława UPA" on memorials in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Gdynia and Poznań. Super Express counts at least 11 sites and links the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, whose name the slogan invokes, to the killing of Poles in Volhynia. In Gdańsk four monuments were hit, among them the Defenders of the Coast monument at Westerplatte, where Polish troops held out for seven days in September 1939. In Warsaw the target was the Chwała Saperom monument in a park near the Wisłostrada, which honors sappers who cleared mines after the Second World War. Rzeczpospolita reported that no one had been detained.

Gdynia's overnight attack

The most recent attack came overnight from 9 to 10 November in Gdynia, where the Monument to the Displaced Gdynians and the Monument of Polish Maritime on Skwer Kościuszki were targeted. Red paint was used on the first, which shows a woman, a man and a child with a pram, and black paint on the second. Wpolityce.pl reported that a QR code on one of the monuments led to a vulgar, anti-Polish manifesto. Jakub Ubych, vice-chair of the Gdynia City Council, wrote on Facebook that the displaced monument stands where German occupiers expelled tens of thousands of Gdynians in autumn 1939. He said of the sites:

“These are places where Gdynia remembers.”

He argued the message was meant to stir tempers and set neighbors against each other in the city's 100th anniversary year.

A Telegram job offer

The Belarusian independent portal MOST Media traced the operation to an ad posted on 7 November in a Telegram chat for foreigners in Białystok. The poster offered 500 dollars per shift for a graffiti job in Poznań and said travel costs would be covered. When journalists posed as a buyer, the recruiter explained the task was spraying "Sława UPA" on a monument, with a QR code to be delivered separately. He reportedly sent photos of Poznań monuments and advised covering the face and working after dark. Payment was offered in cryptocurrency, by BLIK or in cash, and the recruiter claimed similar jobs were running in Warsaw, Wrocław and Lublin. The ad has since been removed, and the account is tied to a +888 phone number, a type that can be bought on the Fragment platform.

Police and experts weigh the pattern

Gdańsk police, speaking to Super Express, suspect the campaign may be a provocation meant to turn Poles against Ukrainians, and they pointed to spelling errors in the inscriptions. They know of no nationwide action and are not cooperating with officers in other cities. In Warsaw, aspirant Jakub Pacyniak of the Śródmieście district police told WP:

“We arrived at the scene, carried out the necessary actions and at this stage are handling the case in line with the applicable law.”

Officers are checking whether the Chwała Saperom monument has protected historic status, which determines how the act is classified, and the inscription is being assessed under the Penal Code. BelPol analyst Uładzimir Żyhar told MOST that recruiting through encrypted messengers matches a pattern of hybrid operations attributed to Russian and Belarusian special services. He said the aim is to destabilize the region and deepen hostility between Poles and Ukrainians, and warned that people taking such work face long prison sentences. An earlier case came in July 2026, when the National Prosecutor's Office reported breaking up a spy network whose members were to be recruited for arson and sabotage.

What remains open

Gdańsk police said they are not coordinating with officers from other cities on the cases. The Gdynia city police are asking anyone who was near Dworzec Główny or Skwer Kościuszki that night, or who has dashcam or CCTV footage, to come forward. Ubych reminded residents that insulting a monument is a crime and asked them to march through the city on 11 November, Independence Day, with flags and children.