On Friday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on the X platform that a decision had been taken on the exhumation of the first Polish victims of the UPA. The Heads of Government expressed their gratitude to the Polish and Ukrainian Ministers of Culture for their good cooperation. “We are awaiting further decisions,” he added.
Finally, a breakthrough appeared. A decision has been taken regarding the first exhumation of Polish victims by the UPA. I would like to thank the Ministers of Culture of Poland and Ukraine for their good cooperation. We are awaiting further decisions.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) January 10, 2025
On Saturday, Andriy Nahoz, head of the Polish-Ukrainian Working Group on Historical Issues on the Ukrainian side, expressed his active intention to resolve disputes related to this issue.
“We are positive about achieving a good solution that satisfies Polish and Ukrainian society,” he said.
Polish victims of UPA. conflict between Warsaw and Kiev
Since spring 2017, a conflict has been going on between Warsaw and Kiev over the ban on the search and exhumation of bodies of Polish victims of wars and conflicts on Ukrainian territory, introduced by the Institute of National Memory of Ukraine. . The ban was issued after the UPA monument in Hrushovice was demolished in April 2017.
See also: Excavations of Volhynia. “The government and opposition parties should speak with one voice.”
From 2017 to 2024, the Institute of National Memory submitted nine official general applications to the Government of Ukraine, including consent for the possibility of carrying out search and excavation operations in a total of 65 locations. (These locations were made iteratively due to the need for repeat applications). Some of them have been positively considered and work has been carried out. Work was refused elsewhere and some requests went unanswered.
Meeting between Mr. Sikorski and Mr. Sibiha. “There is no problem in carrying out work.”
The decision to lift the moratorium on the search and exhumation of the bodies of Polish victims of the Volhyny massacre, which has been in place since 2017, was announced at a joint press conference by the foreign ministers of Poland and Ukraine at the end of November 2024. , Radosław Sikorski and Andriy Sibiha.
See also: Do you agree with the exhumation?Rezek Miller: “This statement makes no sense”
Ukraine subsequently confirmed that “there are no obstacles for Polish state institutions and private organizations to carry out search and excavation operations on Ukrainian territory in cooperation with competent Ukrainian institutions and in accordance with Ukrainian law.” , declared that it was “ready to positively consider the application.” In these matters. ”
The head of the Polish Foreign Ministry said the Polish side would mobilize its institutions, such as the Institute of National Memory, to “response to Ukraine’s demands.”
Difference in recognition between OUN and UPA
Poland and Ukraine have long been divided by memories of the role of Ukrainian nationalist organizations and rebel forces in the ethnic cleansing of some 100,000 people between 1943 and 1945. Polish men, women and children.
For the Polish side, this was a reprehensible crime of genocide (massive and systematic), but for the Ukrainian side, it was the result of a symmetrical armed conflict in which both sides were equally responsible. Moreover, Ukrainians want to recognize the OUN and UPA only as anti-Soviet organizations (due to post-war resistance to the USSR) and not as anti-Polish organizations.
More details coming soon.
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