Vandals have smeared red paint on a Soviet memorial in Potsdam, outside Berlin, which commemorates the soldiers of the Red Army who died in World War II, German police said.
The incident allegedly took place between Monday evening and Tuesday midday, according to police in the state of Brandenburg.
Perpetrators apparently hurled a ketchup bottle filled with paint against the monument.
In addition to the memorial, there are almost 400 graves in the complex to remember the soldiers who died in the battle for Berlin towards the end of the war in Europe.
"Here lie soldiers who lost their lives in the liberation of Potsdam," said Peter Heuer, the chairman of the city council. It was totally unconnected with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he said.
The Soviet War Memorial in Berlin has been smeared with paint twice since the start of the war in Ukraine.
