Russian authorities in Siberia’s Yakutsk have erected statues of two Russian soldiers in a place where a memorial dedicated to exiled Poles and Lithuanians once stood.Independent Russian outlet Astra, citing local media, reported on Wednesday that the new memorial is dedicated to Dmitry “Suntar” Yegorov and Nikolai “Ronin” Romanov. The two reportedly met during Russia’s Ukraine invasion and died on the same day.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.Yegorov served in Russia’s 155th Marine Brigade in Ukraine during the initial days of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, with the brigade being accused of murdering civilians and beheading Ukrainian soldiers during the 2022 occupation of Bucha outside Kyiv, according to Astra.In 2023, Yegorov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia, while Romanov posthumously received the Order of Courage, according to local outlet Ulus Media, which reported on the unveiling of the new monument.Local outlet 7x7 Horizontal Russia noted that the new monument stood at the intersection of Kurashova and Poyarkova Streets, where a memorial dedicated to exiled Poles and Lithuanians in the 18th-19th centuries once stood.In the 19th century, when the Russian Empire controlled much of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, thousands of Poles were exiled to Siberia following the failed uprisings of 1830-31 and 1863-64. Those exiled to Siberia are known in Polish as “Sybirak.”