ethnic Polish population of Volhynian countryside, massacred by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. In May 1943, German authorities created a Polish police unit, which defended the town from the Ukrainians. In 1944, most Poles were transported either to the General Government, or to the Third Reich as OST-Arbeiters. 1944-present Sarny was reclaimed by Soviet forces on January 11, 1944. Since 1944, it has been a part of Ukrainian SSR and later independent Ukraine, as of 1991. In 1972, a Russian tank, the SU-76i, adapted from the Panzer, was discovered in the river around Sarny. It was determined that it was a tank that had attempted to cross the river on January 11, 1944, in support of the advance of the Russian 143rd Rifle Division on Sarny. The tank broke through the ice and sank with its crew. Upon its discovery in 1972, the tank was recovered, renovated and put on display at the then Lenin Prospekt Memorial in Sarny. Contemporary Sarny has predominantly an agriculture-based economy. Through to the 1990s, it was considered to be an industrial and transportation centre, with its principal industries being machine building and metalworking, building materials, woodworking and flax processing. The city and its economy were affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, despite its distance from it. There is interest in renewed investment in the sawmill industry in Sarny. Russian invasion of Ukraine In the evening of March 16, 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city was hit for the first time by a missile strike by the Russian Armed Forces. According to the head of the Rivne Regional State Administration Vitaliy Koval, the blow was inflicted on one of the military infrastructure facilities in Sarny. He also said that there were no victims. In the evening of June 25, 2022, the city was hit for the second time by a missile strike by the Russian Armed Forces. According to the head of the Rivne Regional State Administration Vitaliy Koval, the attack was carried out on civilian infrastructure, at least 4 people were killed and seven others were injured. On the evening of August 28, 2022, powerful explosions rang out in Sarny during an air raid alert, the city was hit by a rocket from the Russian Armed Forces for the third time. According to the head of the Rivne Regional State Administration, V. Koval, a total of four missile strikes on the