The monument, an obelisk at the Russian cemetery in the town of Allinge on the Baltic Sea island, was partly painted over in blue and yellow paint on Sunday, local broadcaster TV2 Bornholm reports.

The paint was used to change a written tribute to fallen Russian soldiers on the monument to a message expressing support for Ukraine during the ongoing invasion by Russia, which began on February 24th this year.

The church in Allinge has reported the damage to the monument to police, according to the report.

The Russian cemetery on Bornholm is one of a small number of locations in Denmark at which Russia marks the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

The Russian ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, customarily marks Russia’s Victory Day – May 9th – by laying a wreath at the cemetery.

Broadcaster DR reported on Monday that was unlikely to happen this year amid poor diplomatic relations between Russia and Denmark and local opposition on Bornholm to Barbin visiting the island in the context of the Russian war in Ukraine. The Russian embassy has not confirmed to DR whether the ambassador has cancelled plans to go to Bornholm.

While most of Denmark was liberated by the advance of British soldiers at the end of World War II, this was not the case on Bornholm, which is located 200 kilometres east of Copenhagen in the Baltic Sea and is closer to Poland than Denmark as the crow flies.

Soviet Soldiers arrived on Bornholm as the German occupation ended and remained until the following spring in 1946.

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