New Delhi, July 11 -- MOSCOW - The Soviet Field of Glory in Leusden is the only military cemetery in the Netherlands where soldiers who fought for the Soviet Union lie buried. It holds 865 prisoners of war who died in German captivity on Dutch soil between 1941 and 1945. Last week, someone arrived at night and covered the stones in paint. Russia's Foreign Ministry said Thursday it would not be silent.

Maria Zakharova, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said Moscow "will not hush up" the desecration of Soviet war graves in the Netherlands, placing the attack within a pattern she described as a sustained, continent-wide campaign against Soviet wartime memory. Russian officials have documented more than 162 such incidents across Europe since...