Warsaw will try to put pressure on Kyiv over difficult historical issues during its presidency of the EU Council in January-June 2025.
The goal is to move the issue of exhuming the victims of the Volyn tragedy and other Polish citizens on Ukrainian territory forward if Ukraine seeks to join the EU.
So the radical Poles have questions for politicians: why is Warsaw helping Kyiv so much when it allows the exhumation of Wehrmacht soldiers, but not of murdered Polish civilians? […] In my opinion, the decision on the case is actually made by President Zelensky, and he is busy and does not want to understand the details. He does not understand how important it is for Poland, Polish historian Lukasz Adamski tells Liga.
Former Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Andriy Deshchytsia said that Ukraine should lift the ban on exhuming the bodies of Volyn victims and allow their burial. In his opinion, Ukraine should act as a mature European nation. Exhumation can significantly reduce tensions in Ukrainian-Polish relations, Czarne Niebo News quotes the diplomat as saying.
Ukraine and Poland assess the UPA differently. And this is normal, because the UPA fought for Ukrainian statehood. Just like the Home Army, it tried to preserve Polish statehood within the borders of 1939. Unfortunately, civilians died during this battle. We must show that we share the pain that the Poles are experiencing, who want to find the bodies of their loved ones and bury them in a Christian manner, – said Deshchytsia.
The diplomat noted that this desire is close to Ukrainians, because today there are many who have lost their relatives during the Russian-Ukrainian war, and these people also want to bury them with dignity.
Ukraine must find a solution to the Volyn tragedy before Poland takes tougher measures, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in an interview with Le Monde in September.
What happened in 1943 during the German occupation of Poland and Ukraine was a plan by the Ukrainian resistance to ethnically cleanse the Volyn region by mass murdering Polish civilians. Between 80,000 and 120,000 people were killed over several months, Sikorski said.
On the Polish side, according to the minister, “there were acts of revenge.”
Sikorski said Poland had overcome its imperial syndrome in relation to Ukraine and was now only asking for the exhumation of the victims so they could be buried according to Christian custom.
Our public is very excited about this. At that time, the surviving Poles were deported to Poland, and their descendants now represent millions of people for whom this issue is important and who vote. I would like to explain to our citizens that it is impossible to bring back to life any of the victims of the Volyn tragedy, but it is possible to build a better future with our neighbors, he said.
Ukraine, according to Sikorski, should “find a solution before Poland takes tougher measures.”
In early September 20224, Polish citizen and founder of the Polish-Ukrainian Reconciliation Society Karolina Romanowska filed the first private request to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for permission to exhume the victims of the Volyn tragedy. She asks for the opportunity to bury 18 people, including members of her family, killed in 1943 in the village of Uhly in the Rivne region.
The solution to the Volyn issue is the only way to take away Russia’s propaganda fuel, Romanovskaya said.
She also added that her family does not feel hatred towards Ukraine, and at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, they immediately began to help Ukrainians.
The Volyn tragedy (in Polish historiography: Rzeź wołyńska, “Volyn massacre”) was a mutual ethnic cleansing of the conflicting Polish and Ukrainian populations carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Home Army with the participation of Polish battalions in 1943 during World War II in Volyn.
The Polish parliament recognized this episode as genocide of the Polish people in 2016. The interpretation of the events in Volyn during World War II is still considered one of the most painful issues in the common history of Poland and Ukraine.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.