Polish citizen Jerzy Tyc died in Ukraine, fighting in the ranks of the Russian army under the nickname "Zygmunt". The authorities of the Kursk region confirmed the death of the erstwhile head of the Society of Memory of Kursk during the war against Ukraine - reports fact.pl.
Tyc over the years led an organization dealing with the restoration of russian soldiers' monuments in Poland. Under his direction, dozens of monuments and military graves were restored in the country - he reminds us.
Russian award for controversial activity
In May 2020, Russian defence minister Sergei Szojgu awarded Tycz with the Medal "Memoirs of the Heroes of Homeland" for activities related to commemoration of russian soldiers. According to onet.pl, the Russian authorities claimed that his work was conducted "under strong force from the rusophobic authorities of Warsaw".
A erstwhile activist left the Polish army in 1989, erstwhile systemic changes began in Poland. He then joined the police, but yet sacrificed himself - as he himself described - "to fight past forgeries, to destruct monuments, to war with the dead."
Controversial statements on Poland
Tyc in 2023 in an interview with the Russian portal gornovosti.ru spoke about believing in "the return of Polish-Russian friendship". "Poles and Russians fought the common enemy together, but this is simply a communicative that is uncomfortable for modern Polish authorities and would like to forget it" - he said then, as RMF reminds.
In fresh years, he lived in Russia and enlisted in Vladimir Putin's army after the escalation of the conflict. According to polsatnews.pl, Polak's body was found in a morgue in Rostów after he disappeared in late June and the ceremony is to be held in Chimek close Moscow.
The favourite of Russian propaganda
Ukrainian writer Denis Kazansky characterized Tycz as "a favourite of Russian propaganda", frequently appearing in Russian media and defaming Ukraine. Russian authorities presented him as a victim of Polish "rusophobia", which was "forced to leave the homeland".
According to newspaper.pl Tyc married a Russian citizen in 2018 and maintained high-level contacts, including with Russian MFA spokesperson Maria Zacharowa and Ambassador Sergei Andreyev. The Kursk Memorial Society, which he founded in 2008, showed last social media activity on March 30, 2025.
Sources used: "fact.pl", "wp.pl", "onet.pl", "polsatnews.pl", "gazeta.pl", "RMF" Note: This article was edited with the aid of Artificial Intelligence.
