In 1915-1916, heavy fighting between Russian and Austro-Hungarian troops took place near Kowel. The latter army included the Polish Legions.

Polish legionaries killed in the battles for Kowel were buried in the cemetery on today's Independence Street (formerly Lutska Street). The War Graves Department arranged this burial site in 1930.

The plot, now comprising 146 single and 5 double headstones, contains identical earth graves with concrete bands and vertical concrete crosses. These graves are unnamed. In 1996, during renovation work carried out by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Remembrance, a monument in the shape of a pillar was placed at the edge of the cemetery, to which a black plaque with an inscription in Polish and Ukrainian was attached, commemorating those who died during the First World War. The inscription reads: "To Polish soldiers / fallen in Volhynia / during the First World War / Compatriots" [text in Ukrainian below].

For many years now, scouts from Zgierz (ZHP's Łódzka Chorągja Łódzka) have been taking care of this cemetery, carrying out the necessary cleaning and renovation work. Until 2016, these works were financed by the Council for the Protection of Remembrance of Struggle and Martyrdom, and after its liquidation by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage under the Minister's programme "Sites of National Remembrance Abroad".