Ukraine will not prevent Poland from carrying out search and exhumation work for victims of the Volyn tragedy on its territory.
This was stated by Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski on November 26 during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Sibiga, writes Radio Liberty.
Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of both countries, we are working on practical mechanisms for carrying out search and exhumation work,” Sibiga said.
In the fall of 2024, the topic of the Volyn tragedy again became controversial in relations between Ukraine and Poland.
In Warsaw they said that the resolution of historical disputes would be one of the mandatory conditions for Ukraine’s accession to the EU. Earlier, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance stated that it plans to include work on the search and exhumation of the remains of Poles in the Rivne region in 2025, responding to relevant requests from Polish citizens.
Presidential elections will be held in Poland in May 2025.
Background
The events in Volyn in 1943 are one of the most tragic pages in the history of Ukrainian-Polish relations. Then the UPA opposed the Home Army, which led to civilian casualties – both Poles and Ukrainians. Historians are still arguing about exactly how many people died then: according to the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, the names of about 30 thousand Polish victims and about 10 thousand Ukrainian ones have been identified. The corresponding Polish institute speaks of 100 thousand Poles killed in Volyn and in the south-eastern voivodeships of what was then Poland (now Rivne, Ternopil and Volyn).
The UINP explains that this confrontation on ethnic grounds “was fueled by the Nazi and communist regimes,” and was also facilitated by “discriminatory policies in the interwar Polish Republic, which included Western Ukrainian lands, against Ukrainians who sought to build an independent state.”
On July 11, 1943, UPA units attacked about a hundred villages in Volyn, where the Polish population predominated. The Poles call those events “Bloody Sunday.” Ukrainian historians and the Institute of National Remembrance speak of them as a “tragedy.” But what is causing more controversy now is not the wording, but the idea of exhumation.
In 2017, Ukraine banned search operations and exhumation of the victim of the Volyn tragedy. This was a response to the demolition of a monument to UPA soldiers in the Polish village of Grushovichi. Two years later, President Zelensky announced that the ban had been lifted, but Poland must restore the memorial tablet on the grave of UPA soldiers on Mount Monastyr, not far from the Ukrainian border. The Poles did this, but not in the format required by Ukraine without a list of names of soldiers.
Because allegedly it has not been established whether these particular people are buried there,” explains Łukasz Adamski, deputy director of the Juliusz Mieroszewski Center for Dialogue (Poland).
So the formal ban on exhumation is still in effect. It will be canceled as soon as the Poles restore the table in the appropriate form, they say in the UINP.
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.