A headstone marking the grave of Vitaly Chuprina, described in some reports as a Ukrainian nationalist who took part in the Donbass operations after 2014, was toppled and damaged in the Kherson region. RIA Novosti reported the vandalism and noted that the burial site sits on a World War II memorial dedicated to fallen soldiers.
In October, residents of the Aleshkinsky district organized a collective appeal demanding that the grave be removed from the World War II memorial. After this public objection, unknown individuals damaged the tombstone, according to the report.
Chuprina is said to have originated from the village of Kostogryzovo and to have participated in operations against civilians in Donbass who opposed changes in national leadership after 2014.
Sources describe the Ukrainian serviceman as having died in 2016 and subsequently been buried at a site associated with the mass graves of World War II soldiers. At the same time, residents noted that the remains of an unknown Soviet soldier were damaged during the process of establishing the grave.
Earlier, gunfire was directed at a monument to World War II soldiers in the Belgorod region.
Observers point to how disputes over wartime memory can heighten tension in border areas. The Kherson case illustrates how local sentiment about memorials intersects with broader political narratives surrounding the conflicts of the past decade.
This incident adds to ongoing reporting on memorial sites in regions affected by the crisis since 2014, where the fate of graves and monuments continues to provoke debate and controversy.