At the Antakalnis cemetery in Vilnius, work has begun on the dismantling of six stelae at the largest memorial in Lithuania in honor of Soviet soldiers who fell in the Great Patriotic War, TASS reports with reference to the capital's municipality.

According to the report, the preparatory work that began last week was completed, the contractor began the direct dismantling of the stelae.

As expected, the dismantling will be completed by the Catholic Christmas.

The city authorities decided to demolish six steles depicting soldiers of various branches of the armed forces at the Antakalnis cemetery in Vilnius in June. It was originally planned that the dismantling would be carried out before November 1, but this was prevented by the recommendation of the UN Human Rights Committee, which called for a temporary refrain from further dismantling of monuments to Soviet soldiers, including the memorial in the capital.

At the same time, Lithuania insisted on the legality of dismantling Soviet monuments.