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Ukraine authorities have vowed to investigate the vandalization of a monument to Bulgarian volunteer fighters in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1888 in the city of Bolhrad in Ukraines Odessa region.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mariana Betsa condemned ccident on Tuesday and said the ministry suspected a deliberate provocation which aims to provoke tension and to undermine friendly Bulgarian-Ukranian relations.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ukraine's Trassa E-95 news agency reported that the monument, which was erected by the Association of Bulgarians in Ukraine in 2012, had been splashed with yellow paint, allegedly by Ukrainian nationalists.

A sign painted on one of the memorial plaques read: Suitcase station Sofia, which was interpreted as a call for the large Bulgarian ethnic community to leave the region of Odessa.

The accident has not been caught on video, as the cameras surrounding the monument had been stolen a year ago.

Bolhrads municipal council had promised to clean the monument for March 3, Bulgarias national holiday, when celebrations organized by the Bulgarian community are to take place.

Bulgarias Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on the monument and explained that it had happened on the night between 27 and 28 February.

We qualify this act as a provocation that is spreading tension in the Bulgarian community in the region, it said in a letter to BIRN on Wednesday.

It praised the quick reaction of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine and said it expected Ukrainian law enforcement authorities to take all the necessary measures to identify and prosecute the perpetrators of the act and prevent such actions in the future.

Bolhrad, which is 167 kilometres away from the southern port city of Odessa, is home to some 16,000 ethnic Bulgarians. Bulgarian settlers founded the town in 1821.

The Russian-Turkish war ended with the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman Occupation and the establishment of a Bulgarian state in 1878.

This article has been ammended to include a comment from the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 1, 2017.

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Ukraine to Probe Defaced Bulgarian Monument - Balkan Insight