Poland begins to dismantle Soviet-era monument

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland has started demolishing a memorial to Soviet Red Army soldiers. The memorial is an unwanted reminder of the power Moscow once held over Poland and a symbol that grew even more objectionable after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The monument is in a town in southwestern Poland. The work to dismantle it began Wednesday on Ukraine’s Independence Day and on the sixth-month anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. It is part of a longer effort to remove hated communist symbols from the public space in Poland and across the region.