Ukraine and Poland exchange lists of places for exhumation – Ukraine's Ministry of Culture

Ukraine and Poland have exchanged lists of places to search for and exhume the remains of victims of historical conflicts.

Source: Andrii Nadzhos, Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Culture for European Integration, in a comment to Polish news agency PAP, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Nadzhos, who heads the Polish-Ukrainian working group on historical issues on the Ukrainian side, assured the agency on Saturday of his positive intentions to resolve disputes related to the topic of exhumations.

Quote: "We have made an essential first step: we have exchanged requests, with the Polish side seeking authorisation to carry out work on Ukrainian territory and us requesting corresponding activity on Polish territory.

We are now examining these requests and gathering documentation in order to make favourable decisions and openly comment on the outcomes of such work with the cooperation of both parties."

Details: Another Ukrainian official, who requested anonymity, told PAP that Ukraine has granted authorisation to look for remains at the site where Polish graves were discovered in 2023.

"Ukraine has granted permission under Ukrainian law to exhume the remains found during the search operations in 2023," the source told the agency.

The official did not disclose the location where the remains of the Poles had been found. However, in 2023, then-Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki visited the village of Puzhnyky in Ukraine's Ternopil Oblast, where Polish and Ukrainian experts discovered a grave containing the bodies of villagers murdered in 1945.

The PAP source noted that "the issue of restoring the names of Ukrainians (members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army) on the tombstone on Mount Monaster (on Polish territory) remains open".

The official stated that permits for search and exhumation in Ukraine would be issued separately for each burial site.

"Ukrainian legislation stipulates that permits are issued for work at specific sites only after the submission of properly executed and necessary documents by companies authorised to carry out the relevant work," they said.

Background:

• On 10 January, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that a decision had been made to conduct the first exhumations of the victims of the Volyn tragedy in Ukraine, though he did not elaborate. [The Volyn (Volhynia) tragedy was a series of events that led to the ethnic cleansing of the Polish and Ukrainian populations in 1943 during World War II. It was part of a long-standing rivalry between Ukrainians and Poles in what is now Ukraine's west. Poland considers the Volyn tragedy a genocide of Poles – ed.]
• Commenting on Tusk's statement, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha expressed hope for "further implementation of agreements with mutual respect and reciprocity"
• Karol Nawrocki, Head of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance and a  presidential candidate, said that he was unaware of the decisions announced by Donald Tusk.

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